Hi there
One of the most jarring emails I ever got was from the founders of a time-management app.
It was a reply to a message I'd sent to tell them how much I loved their software.
‘I’m really impressed,’ I’d said. ‘If you ever need a testimonial for your marketing, just say the word.’
Their response to this fulsome praise?
'We'll bear that in mind.'
That was it. No 'wow!' No 'that's really kind.' Not even a thank you.
My message had been full of enthusiasm. Their reply left me feeling like a child whose balloon had just been popped.
Raving fan
My love for their product vanished. The app still worked, of course, but it faded from my consciousness and soon became just another tool. I no longer felt compelled to recommend it even to friends and colleagues, let alone to strangers on the internet.
Looking back, I can see that I was probably overreacting. Perhaps the app's founders had been distracted when they wrote their reply.
Maybe they'd been delighted to get my email. Maybe it gave them a brief but welcome respite from the stress of dealing with investors or fixing bugs. (I do hope so.)
But the thing is, I don't know what they were thinking. All I had were the five words that had appeared on my screen. And when those failed to match my tone or enthusiasm, my Stone Age brain struggled to fill in the gaps and they lost a raving fan (and eventually a customer).
Rushed response
Email is more complex than we may realise. A message that lands with a ping becomes another item on our to-do list. We think we're being efficient if we can deal with it quickly and get back to the real work. (Even though, as I said last week, writing often is the real work.)
Yet in our rush to respond, it's easy to forget the human who will read what we write. That person will have a human reaction, for better or worse.
Matching their tone doesn't guarantee a happy outcome. But ignoring it almost certainly won't.
Overlooking this is one of the five big email mistakes that we often make. So this week, I reveal how to avoid them. (The article below focuses on writing to customers. But its advice works just as well with colleagues, too.)
