“My apologies for the delayed response.”
It’s unsettling how many of my emails start out this way.
I used to be awful with email, simply awful. A few years ago when email was my mortal enemy, my opening email apology was usually the result of the irresponsible neglect of my email inbox.
Over time, I have gotten much better with this vital communication channel, because my business relies on it more than anything else (yes, even more than social media).
So now when I make that apology, it’s because I’ve had two straight days of back-to-back calls, meetings, strategy writing, and sometimes even a podcast session. By the time 6:00 rolls around, the last thing I want to do is try to achieve inbox 0. So, three days later I’m, responding to your new business inquiry.
How do I address this situation?
I feel the need to apologize when my response time exceeds my own limits of what is acceptable, but I can’t feasibly move around other aspects of my professional and personal life to make more time for email.
The math just doesn’t add up, there are more emails and less time. What is the solution without singing the sad song of “I’m so busy?” Should I keep up the apologies, or extend my own expectations for email response time?
I’m open to suggestions.
managing requests for new business with google forms might help. all their relevant details get collected on the form you create, it all dumps to a google spreadsheet, and you can create a personalized auto-response email explaining that you need a few days lead time, but in the meantime they should check out your sweet podcast/any other resources you want to promote.
with a little bit of javascripting, those forms are powerful. i was able to create a maintenance/IT help desk ticket system with it for work that has pretty solid functionality.
Bernie, totally on board with that and have recently revised my contact forms in that way. Check it: http://truevoicemedia.com/contact-us/ and http://www.jeffgibbard.com/contact/. This problem is with the people that already have my email address and don’t use the form.
Maybe I need to setup some better GMail filters?
i struggle with filters. inbox management on that level isn’t my thing.
i have my thing setup so that recurring locations (for your purposes, maybe customers) can submit multiple inquiries. they seem to like it, and it keeps the requests more orderly.
http://www.fcm215.com/support/
but like you say, it doesn’t stop anyone from just emailing me whenever they feel like it from time to time either.
Check this out. There’s an accompanying podcast. I love Michael Hyatt. Here’s his suggestion. I use a serious of folders for Do, Delegate, Defer in my tags on Gmail that really help. http://michaelhyatt.com/yes-you-can-stay-on-top-of-email.html