If we had to name one commitment we made in 2016 that has propelled our business forward and improved our client experience overall, deciding to be known for a fast email response time is right on top of the list!
On Monday, I had the opportunity to grab lunch with a super sweet photographer friend of ours and chat about all the things on this little figurative list ???? Over Potbelly TKY sandwiches (my favorite ever), we caught up on all things life and business related, and y’all… it was so good. If you are a photographer and you do not have a community of other photographers to cheer you on, share successes and walk through life with, you are missing out. You can choose to keep to yourself out of fear of your “competition,” but friend, you’re going to get lonely really fast! Community is huge, and we’re grateful to have some amazing photographer friends as we grow. Nowadays, it feels like we have some “co-workers” who just get it… and it is wonderful.
When my friend Haley and I were chatting over lunch on Monday, we spent a lot of time talking about what worked last year and what didn’t. It’s so helpful to sit down and evaluate those things at the beginning of the year, because the answers to “what worked and what didn’t” can totally shape the way your next year unfolds.
One of the changes we realized was the most vital for our business in 2016 is having a quick email response time. Just as we shared on Monday about how the things that can impact a wedding day the MOST are minor adjustments, the minor adjustment of improving our email response time impacted our business tremendously. Here is how a fast email turnaround time has rocked our business!
We have office hours & a made simple decision.
We run our business full time, and we try to hold ourselves to the office hours of about 7:30 or 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each day. During those hours, our Gmail inbox remains open on both of our computers. Period. It’s just how it goes!
If we receive a wedding inuiry, we are then able to see it and respond within minutes. If one of our brides has a question, they receive a response that same day (for sure), if not within a few hours of their email. And let me tell you… the simple decision we made to be 100% on top of email has done wonders for our company.
We set boundaries and turned off Gmail notifications.
We do have a little disclaimer here… while we work our hardest to be on top of our inbox, we also are purposeful about not letting it rule our life! When our work day ends around 5:00 pm, we typically shut our laptops and do not respond to emails we receive after 5:00 pm. The exception to this is when we receive an inquiry or something super urgent pops up.
We are huge advocates of having balance in your life and your business, and we don’t ever want us (or you!) to become so motivated in this area that it starts to overtake real life. We actually both have our Gmail notifications turned OFF on our iPhones so that we aren’t tempted to look at email after hours!
BONUS: How we handle weekends and travel
Whether we’re having a relaxing Saturday at home or we’re traveling for a wedding or a workshop, we take time to respond to every email in our inbox a few times throughout the day. If we can’t respond fully right away, we still do send a note back so that our client knows we received their message! We also provide a time frame within which they can expect to hear back from one of us.
If we’re truly going to be unavailable for a defined stretch of time, such as during a week-long vacation, we set an auto-responder and are able to let it go for a few days.
That’s it! Luke and I have always found that any way we can provide our clients with an experience that exceeds their expectations, we simply have to capitalize on that. Truth be told, our clients never expect to hear from us as quickly as they do, so this simple commitment and decision to responding as fast as possible to each email we get has been a total game changer for us!
Do you struggle wth staying on top of that always-refilling inbox? We get it… sometimes it is nuts! What are some ways you can start small with this commitment? We know a few business owners who set designated times 2 or 3 times a day to respond to emails and set a 15 minute timer for each of those blocks of time. Race yourself and see how many emails you can respond to in that 15-minute time block!
We want to chat with you about this in the comments below! How can WE help YOU get on top of your inbox? Xoxo! ????
