Laura brought this up to me a few weeks ago and I hadn’t looked at it in the light she presented. She said, and I don’t quote, “the faster you respond to an email, the more important the person is / feels.” Email tricks and tips are a dime a dozen (the first person in a list of people you write to is the most important) but it never occurred to me that response time, like rapid response time, is noticed.
This is why you buy from Stortz.
I understand that people expect immediate responses to texts. I’ve taken a position on texts that I’ll respond to them when I can. Sometimes I’m on a run and don’t have my phone or at dinner and don’t want to be rude. Emails I’ve never looked at as urgent. HOWEVER, after Laura told me this, I’ve been replying to business emails in an incredibly timely fashion. If I’m sitting at the computer and I see your asking for copy of the invoice, BAM, sent. I drop what I’m doing at that moment to take care of business immediately. The results have been promising. I handle work more efficiently and people seem pleased. Perhaps all of my readers already treated emails this way but I’m offering some advice from my desk after looking at these charts.
I think Laur is right. Especially for a small business, responding to customer/client concerns or inquiries as quickly as possible is a really easy tool to distinguish the experience you provide from other larger distributors. It also helps to develop more personal relationships with the clients you’re serving.
Of course, the downside is that it can become a slippery slope if the expectations are set high and you can’t always deliver that timely service.
Either way, good to see a business that is always considering how to make the customer experience a better one. For small businesses, doing so is a matter of survival.