Email is Like Laundry

After spending hours on Saturday cleaning up my email, it came to me.  Email is like laundry.  There is one brief shining moment when there is no laundry in the basket.  It is all done.  And then, that first dirty sock lands.  And before you know it, there are 150 unanswered emails piled up waiting for attention.

Customers expect prompt answers to their emails.  If you don't manage your email effectively, you could be losing sales.  Recent data from Realtor.com shows that 78% of all email inquiries to realtors are not answered within 8 hours, and 44% are not answered at all.  Getting on top of your email is critical to managing your business. 

I've been reading David Allen's book, Ready for Anything.  Here are a couple of tips from him on email management:

1. Respond within 24 hours, even if only to say, I'll get back to you.
2. Not every email should be responded to via email -- if it is very sensitive or might be confrontational, use the phone.
3. Sort your email into categories:  immediate attention; needs more thought; to read later and then make a list of tasks and file the emails. 
4. Set up folders in your email in-box to sort stuff - e.g. Reading; Phone calls later; Quotes; History files
5. Set aside 1 - 2 hours a week to clean out your email - read the stuff in the reading file; make the follow up phone calls.

I'm finding it really helps me stay more in control, more productive and less reactive. 

Comments

[Darren Contardo]

Here's a couple things I've done:

1. Unsubscribed from about 75% of my industry newsletters and opted for RSS feeds if available. Now I get the info when I want it.
2. Told my colleagues that if it's important, pick up the phone and call.
3. For my immediate team, all emails that require attention are to have an A, B, or C priority associated to them.
4. Spend the first 10-15 minutes every day cleaning out the junk if any made it through. The rest gets thrown in either a document retention folder or an A,B,C inbox.

A = 1 day reply
B = 2-3 day reply
C = 3 days or more reply

This little system has worked wonders! Give it a try.