Do you find that when you send out emails, people only send partial responses? Here is a easy tip that makes it easier for the respondent to address all your concerns AND gets them to address at least some of your issues faster AND also makes it easy for you to follow up.
The Secret… make one email about one topic/project only.
Why does it make it easier to get a response to all your questions?
Most people use their emails like a To-Do list. It feels great to knock a few things off that ever-growing list. So if you send an email with too many things in it, the respondent will reply and deal with either the most important or (more likely) the easiest questions. The email is then considered dealt with… they know you’ll email him again if you really need answers to the other questions.
Why does it get them to respond to at least some of your questions faster?
Other people will look at your email and think… It will take time to answer all those questions… I’ll respond later. They may procrastinate for a long time before getting back to you.
On the other hand, if you had separate emails for each topic… you probably would have received a response to things that could have been answered immediately. (We all want to knock things off that To-Do list)
Benefit for the person you are writing to: It gives them a much better way of managing To-Do items that relate to you.
Why is it easier to follow up?
If you have a separate email for each topic and use Outlook flags, Tasks or some other method of knowing what still needs to be followed up on… it’s easier to mark topics as completed as you get responses… and you know exactly what you still need to follow up on.
It’s also easier to resend an email that has not been responded to at all (than to forward and modify a partially responded-to email)
Try out this simple tip… you’ll find a big change in responses. I have.
Do you have your own ways of getting faster and complete responses? Tell me what you think by leaving a comment on the blog.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
How to Write Emails that Get FASTER Responses to ALL your concerns/questions
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6 comments:
What if you send 3 email on different topics to an individual and the response for each is on one email? This can happen if someone does not want to reply all the emails from their Blackberry for instance!!
Ravi said... What if you send 3 email on different topics to an individual and the response for each is on one email? This can happen if someone does not want to reply all the emails from their Blackberry for instance!!
Response: I don't think that is very likely.. particularly from the BlackBerry.. which does not allow multiple emails to be open on the screen at one time.
Normal way of working is that people will open an email... click Reply and respond.. and then move on to the next email.
If someone does choose to respond on one email instead of seperate emails... it isn't something that you can control.
The problem with this approach is that it allows the recipient to put off the difficult stuff - plus you can lose track of what they've responded to and end up playing confusing email tag with them on multiple topics and emails.
I put everything in a single email andtry to put my questions/requests/tasks in a numbered list, preferably no more than a sentence or short paragraph each, which makes it easier for people to respond. And I number the questions manually instead of using the number format, in case they receive their emails in plain text only.
Doing this encourages the recipient to respond to all the questions, or at least to indicate "I'll get back to you later" on any they have problems with. This means you know exactly what you have to follow upand you can reply on same email to chase up.
Alex
The trick here, if you're checking for status, is to use Outlook Task Assignments, so you can get status updates.
If your recipient (you said you were asking for status on specific things) is likely using e-mail as a To Do list, make it easier; send a Task, and it will be on the ToDo list!
Rick Rutledge said...
The trick here, if you're checking for status, is to use Outlook Task Assignments, so you can get status updates.
Response... Tasks will work if you know that the other person also uses Outlook AND that he/she makes active use of Tasks.
Our own experience has been that many people TRY and use Tasks. However the To-Do list that they spend most of their time on is still their Inbox.
If you need a response, it's probably best to send an email.
There are exceptions obviously for internal emails etc.
Yes it is true. It is difficult for people to think and prepare answers for many questions.
Instead it is easy to answer them one by one.
It is like the saying
"How do you eat an elephant?
Plate by plate"
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