Emails. If emails were actual physical pieces of mail, we’d be drowning in them. Many of us are so afraid to get behind on emails that we are obsessed with checking our inboxes the moment an alert pops up on our phone. What if we miss something so important that it costs us a sale? Or worse, our job? This is the problem, we are so inundated with them, that we often forget others are probably smothered in them too and yet we fire off another important email expecting an immediate response.
Here’s the thing, if something is so important that it cannot wait, it should not be in an email. It should be a phone call. For some people, that strikes a feeling of anxiety in their hearts. “A phone call?! Please don’t.” Yet, if something is so important that it cannot wait, why are we using email? Especially for emergencies. If there is a medical emergency in your house, are you planning to email the paramedics? I’d hope not. The same should apply to your business dealings.
Another reason for making a phone call is clarity. There is nothing like reading the longest thread imaginable trying to explain how something works or trying to clarify something else. You know, like a bad soap opera that plays the same storyline for five weeks and they still haven’t gotten anywhere? It should not take a week to clear up a discrepancy or confusion. Pick up the phone and do a quick back and forth.
Finally, if you aren’t receiving a response to your emails, it’s time to go direct. Sending message after message without a response is getting you nowhere. Maybe you had the wrong email address or someone is no longer your contact. The point is, emails aren’t always the most effective means of communication and sometimes you just have to pick up the phone.
Don’t get in the habit of sending emails if you don’t have to. You’ll be saving someone’s inbox some space and your wrist’s some carpel tunnel. It’s not a bad thing to make a phone call, and people need to start being ok with getting them too.
