Response vs.Reply

“Shortage?of time is?the greatest shortage of our time.” – Fred Polak

When I send someone an email, I expect a response by close of business.

When I send a text message or leave a telephone message, it implies I expect a sooner response.

However, I rarely expect a same-day reply.

Confused?

There is a big difference between a response and a reply.

A response is simply an acknowledgement that my message has been received by the intended recipient, whereas a reply is a return communication attending to all matters raised in my original email, text or telephone massage.

A response is no different to acknowledging someone’s presence as they physically enter your place of business ... a quick courtesy gesture or word that someone will attend to them shortly.

Only the most demanding, and usually obnoxious, customers expect you to drop everything and immediately attend to their needs.

Rocket Mortgage (previously Quicken Home Loans) are the largest supplier of residential home loans in America. They attribute much of their success to the absolute, non-negotiable requirement that employees return every phone call and every email on the same business day they were received.

“We are zealots about this,” says Founder Dan Gilbert, “we are on the lunatic fringe. And if you’re ‘too busy’ to do it, I’ll do it for you” — at which point he gives out his direct-dial extension and promises to return phone calls for any overwhelmed colleague.

You may not have the required information or resources, especially time, to immediately reply in full to a colleague's or customer’s message, but please don’t bullshit yourself, or your customers, by claiming that you don’t have a few seconds to acknowledge receipt of their communication.

Just as time is your most precious resource, so it is with your customers. Quickly responding to their messages is the simplest way of demonstrating you care and appreciate their custom. Delay your response, and you run the risk of them taking their business elsewhere ... remember, they have so many other options to choose from.

You may not like the 'instant gratification,' 'I-want-it-now' world in which we now live, but that is the reality we have to contend with.

A quick response creates additional time for a more reasoned and timely reply later.