I Can't Believe this E-mail from My Client!

Your words can get you business. They can also destroy it. Everyday, our business communications provide opportunities to sway opinions, generate prospects, and create a sale. Our ability to write has a great impact on the level of success that we enjoy. Consider these two responses to an e-mail from a client:


Mrs. Buyer, you are wrong about the schedule for inspection. If you’ll let me take care of the calendar, we can get everything done on time and I will get you to closing. Just let me do my job! I’m busy showing homes this afternoon, but I will inform you of the schedule later this week.



Here’s another approach:


Mrs. Buyer, thanks for the reminder about the inspection schedule. After checking our contract, I find that we have ten more days to wrap up that step and present your repair requests to the seller. I certainly understand why this is so important to you; it’s important to me, too. I will have the details on our inspector's appointment by tomorrow afternoon. It’s a pleasure working with such an informed client, and I am excited about continuing to represent you with excellence.



Here are a few tips for your words in correspondence:

1. Know Your Recipient: write with the recipient in mind. Are they angry, bored, curious, or involved? Give thought to their emotional status and personality type. What we intend to communicate will never reach them if we are not aware of and sensitive to their current emotions and personality types.



2. Slow Down: our work requires fast response. The work calendar is often crowded. Effective writing, though, takes time and deliberation. Instead of responding to every e-mail as it arrives, create zones of time each day when you can clearly communicate without the distraction of other activities. Perhaps you can preserve three distinct appointments with yourself each day to handle e-mail and voice messages. When you have an important e-mail to deliver, make sure that you are providing full attention, a few minutes to review and revise your correspondence, and enough time to make sure that you have covered all the bases. Strive to provide something of unexpected and extra value in the message.



3. Be a Pro: Clients can frequently be annoying and intrusive. That’s why we get paid :). Repeated questions, dumb questions, and annoying questions are all part of the correspondence they deliver. After all, we are just sitting around the office waiting for them to e-mail, right?  Perhaps not. Consider that questions often are an expression of emotional tension or fear. Rather than intensify, escalate, or further burden the client make sure that your correspondence diffuses, neutralizes, and frees the client. They will appreciate what you do to solve problems, and you will improve the transaction experience for them.