Do you get frustrated when people don't respond to your emails? How does it make you feel? Neglected? Irritated? Not important?

We can make allowances for prospects, clients and friends who have other priorities, but what about emails you've sent to a supplier?

When a supplier doesn't respond to my email request, it makes me wonder,

a) How important is my business to them?
b) If they can't organise and manage their inbox, what quality of work should I expect from them?

Are you guilty of owning an unorganised and overflowing inbox? An inbox with client emails awaiting your attention?

Then it's possible you have unhappy clients who feel frustrated and neglected. And it will be expensive to replace them when they leave you for someone who pays them more attention.

Some basic time management techniques can help you resolve the inbox issue, and keep your clients happy. Emails have replaced a large percentage of the postman's delivery, therefore it's time to treat your inbox as you used to treat your stack of post.
Start getting into the habit of dealing with your emails as though they are a task to be dealt with. Effectively managing your inbox is simply a matter of applying some techniques used to deal with interruptions, procrastination and prioritising.

By following a few simple rules, you will be amazed at how much more you can achieve, you will be more focused, more motivated and much more productive.

Oh, and your clients and prospects will feel more valued too..

Tips to put you back in control…

1. Unsubscribe from unnecessary mailing lists.
2. If you get jokes/chain letters, ask friends to remove you from their lists.
3. Set up Outlook to organise incoming mail, i.e. newsletters that you do want to read can go straight into your ‘Newsletter’ folder.
4. Set a regular time to check incoming e-mail & when to respond to mail, and then close your inbox!
5. If you can’t bear to close it, turn off the automatic alert so that you are not distracted.
6. Set up Outlook folders and allocate to the following:
          a) Deal with today – set a time to deal with them
          b) Deal with this week
          c) Deal with this month

And remember to allocate time in your diary to action/read the contents.