Responsiveness is a critical life skill. In fact, I think it may be the single most important factor to your success. People who are not responsive miss out on many opportunities. Why? Because others get tired of waiting on them.
But, let’s be honest—not everyone you or I deal with shares this value. Or, even if they give lip service to it, they don’t practice it in daily life. And so, you wait. And wait. Meanwhile, your own work stacks up and you look unresponsive to your constituents.
It would be great if you never had to deal with these people. The problem is that sometimes “these people” include your boss, a colleague you don’t have authority over, or an important customer. How do you get them to respond to you in a timely manner?
Here are ten strategies that I have found helpful:
- Put their name in the “To” field. This should be obvious, but if you want a response from a specific individual, put that person’s name in the To field and that person’s name alone. If there is more than one name, he or she might assume that one of the others will answer. Also, never use the CC field for any purpose other than FYI. (I even have an email rule that sorts these messages into a separate folder. I assume these are lower priority and only look at this folder once a day.
- Double-check the email address. A few months ago, one of my colleagues wasn’t getting a response from one of our authors. He said, “I’ve emailed him five times.” I was a little irritated myself, so I said, “Forward me your last email, and I will follow-up.” When I got the email, I noticed that my colleague had one character missing in the email address. I asked him to resend the original email with the correct address. The author responded within the hour.
- Write a relevant subject line. Think of the subject line like the headline of a newspaper. The goal is to get them to actually read the body copy. The more specific you can make it, the better. For example, if you are sending me a meeting agenda, don’t just put “Agenda” in the subject line. I get lots of agendas. Instead, put something like “Agenda for June 10th Executive Team Meeting.”
- Put your question at the top. Writing a good email is like writing a good blog post or magazine article. As they say, “don’t bury the lead.” Put the most important thing (the “lead”) in the very first paragraph. Don’t assume that the recipient will read beyond that. You can use the rest of the email to provide support or background information.
- Keep your message short. Long emails only encourage procrastination. Think of your own behavior. What happens when you get a long email? Right. You save it for later. Unfortunately, many people never get around to “later.” If you keep the message short, you make it easy for the other person to digest what you have said and respond now.
- Use the high priority flag. You have to be careful with this, because if you use it with every message, people will “brand you” as someone who always cries “Wolf!” However, if you use this sparingly, it can communicate urgency. You can also begin the subject line with the word “Urgent,” a colon, and then your subject. For example, “Urgent: About to Miss the Grisham Deadline.”
- Offer multiple choices. Make it easy on the reader. Narrow the range of options down to two or three and then ask them to pick one. For example, “Which hotel do you prefer for our upcoming trip to San Jose: (1) the Marriott, (2) the Sheraton, or (3) the Hilton?” After you ask the question, you can provide the backup on each hotel.
- Provide a deadline. This makes your expectations clear, so the reader is less likely to procrastinate. I would advise against providing an artificial or bogus deadline. If the other person discovers that the deadline was not real, your credibility will be damaged. He will never take your deadlines seriously again. Instead, provide the specific date and time. For example, “by noon tomorrow (Thursday)” or “by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 7th.”
- Use a “negative option.” When all else fails, this is the strategy I use. Here’s how it works: You tell the person what you are going to do unless you hear back from them by a certain time. This makes their response optional. For example, “Unless you reply by noon tomorrow, I will assume that the proposal meets with your approval and send it on to the client.”
- Copy their boss. This is dangerous, I know. The person may respond, but they will likely also resent it. I never do this unless I am out of options, and I can’t get a response any other way. Before you use this strategy, you need to consider the collateral damage to the relationship. However, there are times when you have no other choice.
Finally, maybe you shouldn’t be using email at all. I know it’s hard to believe, but not everyone prefers email. If the person isn’t responding, why keep beating your head against the wall? Instead, Twitter them (via DM), call them on the phone, or drop by for a visit. If the other person is your boss or customer, it is your job to conform to their communication preferences not the other way around.
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Another great post, Michael. Spot on. To expand on your point #3 about a quality subject line, I'll point you to a post I did recently, called Never Say Thx.
Keep up the great work.
Your post is fantastic. I like how you used so many examples.
My strategy is the old adage that you attract more bees with honey. I've received many snarky or condescending emails that only make me want to leave them unanswered. If the email makes the recipient feel competent, positive or even flattered they will be more likely to reply. "Put a ten on their forehead," as John Maxwell says.
I agree. Shame and condescension are not very effective.
I don't copy a person's boss, but copying someone's assistant (if they have one) works wonders! Also, keeping things short (#5) is something I need to get better at. Thanks, Mike.
That is a great idea. I try to do that, too. I should have included it.
One thing that many of my colleagues and I do during our busy school days is to type our information in the subject line and leave it at that. It works!
We do that sometimes, too. It's kind of like Twitter but even shorter!
Or you could give them an old-fashioned phone call.
You mean like I said in the last paragraph. ;-)
Thank you for a HUGE laugh out loud moment. That picture reminds me how I feel after spending the day at the computer writing. Since I work at home I often sleep 'with' not 'on' my computer.
I have to agree: it is ia great photo. I found it on iStockPhoto.com where I get all my photos.
I think most of your advice is very good. I wholeheartedly agree about brevity, a clear and direct subject line and asking your question early.
Your list order is wise, too. I'd use #8, #9 and #10 sparingly. I used to think #9 was practical, but it runs the risk of messages getting missed, lost or caught in spam filters too much for me.
I believe that the #1 on the list should be Double-check the email address then a phone call (like you said in your last paragraph:) especially in a corporate environment. @Rob I'd use #8, #9 and #10 sparingly also. CC'n someones boss may get the job done but it will leave a bad taste. Great post!
We all use MS Outlook in the company I work for. I will sometimes make a message appear in red in the recipients inbox, so that it stands out from all the other regular black ones. That certainly grabs attention, and sometimes people will reply just to find out the secret sauce for making emails red!
That's interesting. I'd like to hear more about how you do that. Is it with Outlook categories?
To make the subject line red for a recipient, you both have to be using Outlook. You flag the message for follow-up by the recipient (so a reminder will pop up for them), but you set the follow-up date as a past date. Any message flagged for follow-up with a past due date has a red subject line.
If you're both using Outlook, just flag the email for follow-up by the recipient and a reminder will pop up for them. It prevents them from getting irritated by the trick.
Great post. I also will use a phone call, sms and casual face-to-face to check on an unanswered e-mail
Also, think first before you send. Last year, someone contacted me about setting up a video conference. Since he hadn't settled on dates, I told him to send me the sites when he had decided so I could set up the conference. Instead, he emailed all the participants, listing me as a point of contact. Suddenly I'm getting a flurry of emails from everyone demanding to know why this conference hasn't been scheduled. I have no idea what's going on. I finally track the source down and ask him to provide the same information that I asked for in the first place. He rushes out an email to all the participants–not thinking again, because he had to send emails to these people so already knew who was attending–and starts another flurry of emails. I finally had to sort through all the email to try to glean what sites were in the conference because he just sat back and ignored all the trouble he'd caused. If he'd thought about what he was sending out first, then none of this needed to happen.
Great post. However, I disagree with the comment that if it is your boss it is your job to conform to their communication preferences. A good boss is one that negotiates and figures that out with you and if they choose not to do that, well that says something about them and you should question if you want to continue to work for them.
I'm outraged that you posted this photo of me (above). Can't a girl nap while her coffee I.V. gets going? :)
In all seriousness, this is a great subject to talk about. My only suggestion on urging a response is skipping the email thing altogether walking down the hall or picking up the phone. Sometimes it diffuses any potential frustration just to do a check in to say, "Hey, I know email can be unreliable so I wanted to touch base in case you needed to talk through anything so we can proceed…"
Sometimes that works for me and keeps the defensiveness down on both sides of the communication.
Great suggestion. For me face to face is always better if it is possible.
This is a great post – and one that is timely in today's email overload world. The company I work for started offering consulting in this area. One technique we offer is the ABC's of email, where – like you said – keep it short and direct. You list the Action that you are requesting, the Background to your request, and a Closure with the niceties or any other follow-up info. At first, though I consider myself a Productivity Guru, I thought it was a little hokey. But, after using it, it really works with getting replies (and quality replies) to emails.
Use the high priority flag – I'm a big fan of that one. I work with a lot of volunteers who often times don't get the urgency factor. This may help.
Great post.
Michael,
You have some awesome advice and email habits to use. Curious on the cc one, I started using this and my email suddenly became very manageable BUT I found that people used TO and CC interchangeably and I was missing items.
How to work with misuse of cc?
Thanks,
Ted
Twitter: @tedkinzer