Well, it finally happened. Your client, or customer, or boss, or best friend feels put out or confused. That’s because you never responded to his or her email.
Why? Because you missed it. Perhaps you’re still working on your inbox organization. Or maybe you haven’t gotten around to getting organized yet. Even if you do have a handle on your inbox most of the time, there are always those times when you fall behind.
The first thing to do is to find that email and to follow up on any action.
Use the built-in search tool for your email program. You can search by sender or subject.
The next thing to do is to apologize.
Here’s a great website to help you to formulate that apology: Perfect Apology.
Hopefully, you’ve been forgiven now and you can patch things up. If it’s a client or a customer, you may have to follow up with a special offer or discount on your services. Take on some extra work if it’s your boss. If it’s a friend or family member, there’s always the old throwback of flowers and/or chocolates. Perhaps stand her or him a drink sometime.
The third step may be to make sure that important people can reach you in other ways.
We’ve all experienced times when an email never got answered. A lot of people are dealing with inbox chaos. I usually follow up with another email. If that goes unanswered within a day or two, I’ll call or text. Some prominent people who can’t stay on top of their inbox volume set up a regular Skype chat or Google Hangout with their followers.
Check out my blog post here on alternative communication methods: Communicate Like You’re a Millennial.
The last step is to get back on top of your inbox.
Be sure to read my blog post here on email management if you haven’t already: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive.
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“Drowning in Email – A Lifeline for Communications Overload”
