Listening to a NZ Angles podcast of an interview with the soon-to-be in NZ and prominent US angel investor, Bill Payne, I was reminded of small rule I too like to abide by. It was concerning email etiquette, particularly ones response times to emails.
Through my various engagements and activities while at University I have found this etiquette to be quite regularly ignored by the vast majority of people. This results in an unwanted and unneeded source of frustration for those in the ‘From:’ box.
Bill has an open invitation to anyone who would like to email him and he’ll be sure to get back to you within 24hours [ I'm going to test him 
]. This is excellent practice. With smartphones now abundant, especially in the corporate scene, ‘I haven’t been at my computer all day’, is simply no longer an excuse. If someone of Bill’s character/popularity can manage it, I’m sure most of us can. It doesn’t need to be the longest email reply – if you can’t give a full reply right now, let them know.
Therefore….. if you have an email address then you should be obliged to use it properly. It is simply good practice no matter what industry.
Try it! Something as simple as this will result in more fruitful relationships with your friends, colleagues, customers, suppliers, students, business acquaintances etc.
Better still, if you happen to have their phone number…. CALL! This is something we appear to have forgotten how to do since emailing was rapidly adopted. Better still if your recipient is just a few offices down the hallway – go talk to them ! And stop being anti-social. People can ignore emails or they can get lost mysteriously. It’s also easier for someone to say ‘no’ in an email. Phone calls put people on their toes resulting in an answer then and there. The personal touch is also a valued benefit
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Graeme @ graemefielder.com
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