Respond to customers within minutes or hours, not days. Even a brief acknowledgment beats silence and builds trust. Fast replies are cheap to scale with assistants or automation, and they matter more than perfect answers.
Answer your correspondence quickly, if not instantly. People don't necessarily expect fully fleshed out thoughts, but they do expect you to reply. This is a big advantage you can take if you want it, and that a lot of people leave lie because they will get an email, they go, I'll take care of that later, and then they don't, and then it piles up in their inbox and then it becomes even harder for them to do. And in the meantime, the customer feels like they're being ignored. The people who consistently reply to emails or return calls, et cetera, and do it at least same day— in fact, I would even encourage within a few minutes or seconds— are the ones who are going to get the best reputation with their customers. And it's so cheap to do. You can do it through an assistant, you can do it through automation, you can do it through just doing a quick, "Yes, I saw your note." When you do those things, you are sending a signal that you care about the customer, and that will get you immediate trust and benefit that transcends any technical expertise you have.
