Q&A: Responding to email

Sharon writes:

My biggest question at this very moment is how do you respond to questions like these [the quick question email] when you ask them? Personally to every individual e-mail or with some kind of template response?

Hey, you asked.

I do try to respond to each email that comes in personally, as it is a great opportunity to connect with people and provide value. Although I have to admit that this isn’t always possible given how busy we are at times (I have been delinquent in answering some emails lately, tsk tsk).

And I would look to respond personally vs. using a templated response… just because a templated response can come across as ‘canned’ and may be a turn-off.

There are a few ways to make responding as easy as possible:

• Pick a day of the week to respond to these emails. I like to do this on a Friday afternoon as I find it a fun way to wrap-up the week.
• Whenever I answer a question I also post the answer at my blog. Which means that when someone asks a similar question in the future I can point them to the blog for the answer, vs. re-answering it again. Great way to save time AND also build up your blog content.
• Look at each response as an opportunity to create a sale. If you knew that the person on the other end of the email could potentially become a buying customer, would it be worth the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to reply? But of course!