Email - When the Line Goes Dead

In his Harvard Business Review blog post, "How to Handle Silence, the Worst Kind of Feedback", author Peter Bregman tackles a too common problem: communications that go silent.

He suggests that after two unanswered communications, you "reach out one more time" with the message, "I don't mean to hound you — but I figured I'd reach out one more time. Please let me know if you are able to discuss this further. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you're not interested."

While the solution he proposes is reasonable, there's a special case that requires further consideration - email. That's because we can't be reasonably sure that the intended recipient received our message, even if they have in the past.

Here are a few of the possibilities:

• Today's SPAM filters are sophisticated, and accept of reject email based on many criteria. Never take past receipt of a messsage from a recipient as evidence that all messages from that recipient are getting through.


• Procrastination - your email has been placed in an "answer later" folder and forgotten.


• Your address book contains an outdated or infrequently checked address.


• After a SPAM filter update, your SPAM filter no longer considers responses from your recipient "worthy" and discards them.


• Even typically organized people sometimes allow their inbox to grow out of control and miss messages they consider important

How many misunderstandings have resulted from emails that inadvertently didn't get read?

The Solution

Never let a conversation end on an unanswered email. If you're about to "reach out one more time" and the previous attempts at communication were via email, call the person. Let them know that you're calling because you're not sure if they've received your emails.

I've appreciated this additional courtesy on those rare occasions where I've unintentionally failed to respond.

Related Posts

How to Handle Silence, the Worst Kind of Feedback

Taming Your Inbox

Digital Incivility: The Unseemly Rise of Rudeness

Comments

[Susan Mazza]

This past week I was one of those people not responding! I was on the road and messages and tweets were coming in, but only sporadically was I able to send them out. First time I traveled only with my Blackberry and not my computer. Will not do that again! Funny how some people were very gracious, knowing it was unusual for me to be so unresponsive and/or absent for so long. A few were not so understanding. And boy would I have appreciated that phone call!

[Rick Ross]

I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been there too! I try to be ultra-conscientious about replying to emails, but for various reasons, have occasionally missed doing so – or the message failed to reach the recipient. I’ve been mortified after later learning that there’s been a problem.

Of course, there have also been times when I wondered why someone hadn’t responded to an email from me. Following up by phone has always avoided a misunderstanding.

When working with new clients I now make a point of discussing communications during our first meeting. I ask that if I ever fail to respond within 24 hours that they call me.

Everyone, at one time or another, has inadvertently failed to respond to an email or the response has somehow gotten lost. More people keeping all the possibilities in mind will prevent unnecessary misunderstandings.

Thanks for relating your experience!