How Slow is your Email Response Time?

[Harold Mansfield]

This subject is obviously a pet peeve of mine.

Some business are just horrible at responding to emails in a reasonable time. I see now that it has nothing to do with the size of the business, that it's a flaw in how it's managed.

But what is a reasonable time to everyone?

I answer emails all day long as they come in. Some immediately, but generally all within the hour. It doesn't take but a minute or two, and I go back to what I was doing. No Problem. I'll even answer some while on a call about something completely different. It's really not that hard to respond to people.

I have a on again, off again client who takes days or even weeks to get back to you. I'm sorry, but no one is that busy. That's just indifference to other people's time.

The most perplexing thing to me is companies that actually invite you to contact them for more information, and then take a week or longer to get back to you or even worse...never respond at all.

I've contacted companies via Social Media..same thing. No response. Really? Then what's the point?

What do you think is an acceptable email response time?
How fast do you respond vs. how fast you want to be responded to?

[Steve B]

I usually respond within a couple hours. My mail comes on my phone, so it is pretty easy to stay up with it.

[billbenson]

I respond to all of my emals the same day. As a part of my business strategy I try to respond to my emails and phone calls immediately. It's just good customer service and It gives the customer less time to look elsewhere.

Where it is an ongoing conversation and not urgent, I may take a while. But usually the same day.

[Freelancier]

I respond as quickly as I can relative to the importance of the e-mail message. Some e-mails get immediate response, some sit for a few hours until I'm ready to deal with it, some never get a response. Pretty much the same for voice mail.

Just because you someone sends you an e-mail doesn't mean it should automatically go to the top of the queue. You have to manage your electronic communications just like your verbal ones so that you get the most important tasks done first. There are also times I don't answer the phone, just because it's not the top priority at that moment. Sometimes food is much more important. :)

[Harold Mansfield]

Just because you someone sends you an e-mail doesn't mean it should automatically go to the top of the queue. You have to manage your electronic communications just like your verbal ones so that you get the most important tasks done first. There are also times I don't answer the phone, just because it's not the top priority at that moment. Sometimes food is much more important. :)

I certainly understand that. Not every email is urgent. However, I don't understand not responding to requests for information or someone reaching out to find out more about a product or service. Of course no one responds to spam or solicitations, I'm not talking about garbage emails. I'm talking about business emails.

If someone contacts me for business, during business hours, and it's the first contact..there is no way I'm going to make them wait 5 hours before I respond. I just don't understand that. It's just basic customer service.

It's like calling a restaurant and the phone just rings and rings. That's crappy customer service I don't care how "exclusive" the place is.

[Wozcreative]

To me it depends on who emailed me. If it is someone that is generally disorganized in their responses, I will wait a few hours until I get more off my plate to read their email in detail and get to it (Sunday night I spent 30 minutes deciphering 6 emails from a client who later turns out gave me all the wrong information because of how unorganized he was).

Sometimes if it's something like a revisions, I will email back once I get the change done (usually same day or next day). If its a quote request, I will try to do that immediately. If it's an approval for final artwork, they also get immediate action.

Those clients that you spoke about.. that take days or weeks to respond (on and off randomly), I take them MUCH MUCH less seriously. I will even respond in a few days.

If I get an email from a close friend and it is a personal message, I will generally respond to them end of day/on my break.

[Brian Altenhofel]

It depends.

Support requests have a 2 hour SLA during business hours. The 2 hours is a deadline to have a response on the status of the issue, not necessarily a fix (although more often than not, a fix is implemented and in production by the time I reply).

Prospective clients? Depends on how interesting the subject line and first sentence or two were. If they're interesting enough to me, I'll respond as soon as I read it. If "okay, sure", I'll put it off until I'm at a point where I can take a 15 minute break. If "meh", probably at the end of the day or first thing in the morning. I've actually had a few on the "very interesting" end of the spectrum that agreed to wait up to a week for an estimate (I don't do quotes), but the confidence to ask for that wait time when the request comes in at a time that I'm severely swamped comes with the territory of 90% of sales already being closed before the estimate is put together.

Existing clients in good standing? As soon as is feasible.

Existing clients in bad standing (unpaid invoices, fickle, etc.)? I just reciprocate the appreciation (unless they happen to be a bridge that cannot be replaced yet).

[michaelstark61]

the best thing one should do is configure your email on your phone. With this your can read all the mails and respond the important ones. I do the same thing and it helps me keeping in touch with almost all the important people.

[huggytree]

if it is a homeowner contacting me about pricing or scheduling a job i call them on the phone when i get home from work. I find emailing them back quotes dramatically reduces the sales % for me. If i call them on the phone and actually talk to them i typically get the job 80-90%(they rarely answer). If i get a machine or email them back my odds are 10-20%

i find customers typically email 10+ plumbers for quotes..its an easy to get as many quotes as possible.....e-mailers are price shoppers.....if they truely want ME they call me on the phone.

i get builder emails all day long...i answer them nightly......most call me by phone...

[CallBettie]

I usually respond immediately and everyone who works for me knows we have a no excuses 24 hour max response time. I did recently have an experience trying to rent an RV in which I emailed, called, filled out contact forms and it took over 3 weeks to get a hold of someone. Absolutely unacceptable service in my not so humble opinion. :)

[ashleyidesign]

When I used to work in an office environment I used to respond to emails almost immediately. This was only because most of the emails I got were internal and if I didn't answer right away that person would through my door. Eventually I started closing the door so they would literally knock.

I work for myself now, and am solely responsible for sales, marketing and customer support. I'm on my email all the time, BUT I don't respond right away. Since I travel frequently (nine countries in the next month) and am in some wacky timezones, I've become really good at prioritizing emails and tasks. An urgent issue for a client takes precedent over a sales inquiry which itself takes precedent over social media or a new comment on my blog.

That said, I often will email back a quick note to people I know, saying hey, I got this, I'll get back to you in detail later on. Sales inquiries take a little more time as I like to do a bit of research, and therefore need the laptop or ipad instead of my phone, but even then I'll email back asking a couple of general questions to at least buy myself some time.

TLDR; I check it often, but only respond once or twice a day. At the end of the day, I'm always at inbox zero.