CHASING EMAILS

I worked on a refinance project and eagerly submitted all relevant documents within 24 hours. I kept checking my inbox for a responding email from my financial contact. A couple days went by, and I wondered what professional courtesy is before I contacted them once more.

I was under a lot of pressure and an unmovable deadline for the funds that the re-fi would deliver. Which lead to my impatience with this person. I mean, really, how long does it take to do this job?

Sound familiar? Waiting on an email. Thinking about this, I started to remember and go over the last month or so of waiting for email responses. I found out that many, about a third, of emails I sent, I either had to resend again or call or text the person to find out the information I asked for in my first email.

This was extremely frustrating and time-consuming in rechecking inbox and junk mail.

So I reached for Google to ask, “what is the expected time for an email to be returned.”

Guess.

Surveys conducted by Microsoft and Klaus found that 50% of email senders expect a reply within 24 hours, while a more recent one by HubSpot shows that 90% of customers expect an “immediate” response, that being 10 minutes or less. Jul 7, 2020

Short answer: as fast as you can.

Long answer: within 24 hours

A short “I received your email and will get back to you within — — “ is a reasonable expectation even if someone is extremely busy.

So I decided to add this short line in my emails to business contacts and a few family members.

I want to be sure you got this email. It would be much appreciated if you could respond with a short “got it” and possibly let me know when you can react.

Does this solve the email response time? It helps.

As for the refinance project, it was handled, and I got the money!