How Not Replying to Email Makes a Better Client Experience
Sometimes it’s good to be overly-enthusiastic (like me on National Doughnut Day) but one place it's not cool to be an eager beaver is when it comes to your Inbox. Bear with me here for a minute, k?
One time I was asked to speak to a group of entrepreneurs at a Rising Tide Society event. Our topic? Time and priority management. I offered some of my best practices and peeps were taking notes and asking questions which is always a good sign that your talk doesn't suck.
Until. I mentioned setting boundaries around email. People FREAKED out. I mean, like in a very polite restrained way but damn. There was resistance when I recommended:
1. everyone "batch" their email time (setting aside just 1-2 strict blocks of time each day to be in their Inbox) and
2. mention those hours in their email signature (to set communication expectations)
The objections all boiled down to the same thing: fear that if we don't respond to an email right this very second, then we'll lose business.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I'll argue the opposite opinion. When we're constantly jumping in and out of our Inbox we're actually HURTING our business.
Because when we don't have a container for communication with our customers, the entire client experience suffers.
Think about it for a sec...imagine you're in the middle of something then decide to just "check your email real quick" and see a request for a proposal in your Inbox. Well, shit! Now you jump straight into working on it but it turns out you don't actually have enough time so you rush through just for the sake of replying asap and you don't realize until later that you forgot some key info. Wah wah waaaah.
Or maybe you sell physical products and a customer received the wrong product. You interrupt your flow to put out that fire when what you should have done was wait until your time block, when you could pause. Take a breath. And consider how best to fix the situation. Then you could reply to your customer with intention.
When we treat email like a game of whack-a-mole, answering every one as soon as they pop up, you end up distracted and unfocused which means you make more errors. Not to mention, you're letting email disrupt the other tasks you're working on for your customers (like writing thank you notes, editing photos, boxing up product).
Your peeps deserve your undivided time and attention.
Stop letting email rob you of the focus you need to show up and serve like a bad ass. Put boundaries around your Inbox and let email communication become one part of your well crafted client experience.