Ryan Dohrn warns against replying to emails instantly. The habit sets an unsustainable expectation with clients and derails your day. He learned this the hard way when clients got frustrated the moment he couldn't respond immediately.
Friends, if you're leaving your email open 24/7, 365, and you're answering those emails in rapid-fire succession, you've gotta be asking yourself, am I actually doing the right thing for me, your business, and actually for your customers? Now, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be prompt in your replies to your customers. Although what I am suggesting to you is that a lot of you, your inbox, your email, is actually what drives your day. Not an agenda, not priorities. It's as everything comes into your inbox, that's how your daily agenda is set. Now friends, I just want to be clear with you. I used to do this. I used to be one of those people when a customer would say to me, oh my gosh, Ryan, you're so quick to answer my emails. I sure appreciate it. I thought I was doing a really good thing for my customers. What I realized though is that I was setting a dangerous precedent. So, when I wasn't able to reply, I was on vacation, in a meeting, driving to an appointment. A lot of times my clients are like, hey, where are you? I didn't hear from you. Normally you're so quick to reply. The busier you get, the less likely you can do that. And as the kids out there always tell us, hey, old man, you need to get a life as well. So, my advice to you in this quick tip this week is, sure, be prompt, but you don't always have to be instantaneous. With every single reply because friends, it derails your day and also it often sets an unnecessary kind of dangerous precedent on how you're always gonna behave with your customers.
