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How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business -Part 2-

How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business -Part 2- | Emily Moore | Private Photo Editor | Emails are not the most exciting part of a business, but they are incredibly important. In part 2 of my "How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business" series, I'm sharing about how the way you might be responding to emails could be hurting your business.
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I'm a NC girl born & raised, a wife to my college sweetheart, mom to my sweet daughter Caroline & fur-mom to my floof, Riley. I love summer days at the beach, fall weekends in the mountains, & everyday in between exploring new corners of the world. I live for Italian food, tacos & margaritas. Currently taking life one adventure at a time.

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How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business -Part 2- | Emily Moore | Private Photo Editor | Emails are not the most exciting part of a business, but they are incredibly important. In part 2 of my "How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business" series, I'm sharing about how the way you might be responding to emails could be hurting your business.

How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business -Part 2-

Last week, I discussed one of the major ways that the way you are sending emails could be hurting your business. Today, I want to share with you how the way you might be responding to emails could be hurting your business. It’s not the most fun topic, but it’s SO important…so let’s just dive in!

How Responding to Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business

Here is the general rule of thumb when it comes to responding to your emails: try to respond within 1 business day if possible. However, 1-2 business days is an acceptable amount of time to respond. Any longer than that, and you will find yourself losing business! We certainly don’t want that, now do we?

If you are busy and you you aren’t able to respond to emails for 2-3 business days, I would recommend doing one of two things.

  1. Set an auto responder so your clients will know when to expect to hear back from you. Or
  2. Hire an assistant to handle your emails.

Waiting longer than 3 business days to respond to an email is going to end up costing you business. Whether it’s a bride inquiring with you for her wedding day, or a photographer inquiring with you about your photo editing services, you will lose that client if they think you will not be responding to them.

Taking a really long time to respond to emails makes your client feel that you

  1. Don’t want or need their business.
  2. Don’t care enough about them to respond.
  3. Won’t be reliable in the future when they hire you.

Emailing When You’re on Vacation

If you are on vacation, make sure you have you vacation auto responder on. In your auto responder, make sure to let them know that you

  1. Are currently out of town.
  2. You will have limited or no access to email during that time.
  3. You will respond to them when you return.
  4. The date you’ll be back in the office responding to emails.

After returning home from vacation, make sure you dedicate a good chunk of time to be in your office returning those emails when you said you would. People will be expecting to hear from you!

Not Responding to Emails

One of the worst disservices you can do for your business is not reply to an email at all. I can’t tell you how many of my current clients came to me, and after my quick response said, “I’m so glad to hear from you! I inquired with someone else, but they never responded.” It’s shocking how often this happens! Even if you don’t want to work with someone, you still need to respond to them letting them know.

I’ve gotten referrals from people I didn’t even get a chance to work with because I nicely referred them to someone else who I thought was a better fit for their style. They appreciated it, and I still ended up getting referrals even though I didn’t work with them. It’s not only good customer service, but it will leave a good impression on them even if you aren’t able to work with them.

How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business -Part 2- | Emily Moore | Private Photo Editor | Emails are not the most exciting part of a business, but they are incredibly important. In part 2 of my "How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business" series, I'm sharing about how the way you might be responding to emails could be hurting your business.

A Good Response Goes a Long Way

Emails go a long way, and not taking the time to respond to a potential client is not only a disservice to your business, but to that person. If you are running a business and can’t handle the amount of emails you receive, hire someone to help you. When that’s not an option, find another alternative that works for you.

If you don’t want to work with someone, be honest with them in a way that is still helpful to them. You are providing a service, and you are going to get emails from people who aren’t going to be the right fit, but you should still be kind and courteous to them and help them find someone who will be a perfect fit for them.

I hope you find these tips useful and I hope you will start implementing them into your business TODAY! Next Tuesday, I’ll be talking more about the way you are asking for help could be hurting your business!

If you like this post, you may also be interested in:

How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business – Part 1

How Emails Could Be Hurting Your Business – Part 3

Why I switched to Flodesk for Email Marketing

Check out my Resource Library for all of the tools I use to run my business! For even more educational resources, follow me on Pinterest and subscribe on YouTube.

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  1. Laurie Louis says:

    What a great post. Getting behind in emails and not deleting them when I’m finished or archiving them is my biggest downfall.

  2. Sarah says:

    This is such a good reminder, thank you for sharing! Email and business etiquette are always so important. Some good wisdom!!

  3. Mercedes says:

    Good points! Also good to keep checking the spam folder just in case. I know of folks who lost opportunities because of that spam folder, unfortunately!

  4. Morgan says:

    Such good tips, definitely something to think about with checking that spam folder!

  5. annya says:

    great tips!Personally i use the auto responder so my clients will know when to expect to hear back from me as i’m a 1 woman shop

  6. So true! I hate it when I don’t get a response to my emails and I need to work on being more prompt too. Thanks for sharing this!

  7. jamie says:

    this is a very true post! So many of my clients are surprised and delighted by the simple fact that I always get back to them within a few hours, it makes me wonder why other business owners are letting inquiries slip by.

  8. Alekandra says:

    Yes, it is definitely important to get back to respond to emails within a certain time limit. I typically respond within 24 hours.

  9. Alyssa Bouma says:

    this is such great advice! lately I’ve been SO busy, I’ve had to set up an auto responder, and though I didn’t want to do it, it’s been so helpful!

  10. These are wonderful tips! Love how practical these are and can really help your business! Thanks for sharing!

  11. Kerlyn Van Gelder says:

    These are such great tips for making the most of your emails! I agree with not hearing back, people will quickly move on!

  12. Sheryl says:

    These are great tips! It took me a long time thinking I could never be away from my phone or my computer in case I missed something. I have become more comfortable with the auto responder and it has made a he difference for me!

  13. jiyeon says:

    wow! this was definitely an interesting article! you did an amazing writing!

  14. Madison says:

    This is such a useful (and timely) post! Thank you for the reminder and helpful tricks!

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