Why people do not respond to
my e-mail ? Heard that anguished question before
? Well, I hear that so often and try to explain
intricacies of e-mail communication so many times
- that led me to write this article. Hopefully,
I shall be able to refer the questioner to this
article next time.
There may be several reasons why your e-mails
go un-answered - and many of the reasons may be
traced back to you ! It is true that the recipient
may be unwilling or deliberately deleting your
mails without responding, but at the same time
- there is a fair chance that you are committing
some grave errors in your e-mail communication.
It is unfair to jump to a conclusion on recipient's
attitude - the fault may as well lie with you
!
Sounds bizarre ? Well - let us logically examine
all possible angles why an e-mail communication
fails. We shall analyze various reasons, examine
common mistakes and goof-ups, develop a check-list
and finally arrive at specific measures that can
significantly enhance response rate.
Reasons for Failure of e-mail
communication
You have sent an e-mail to John last week - but
have not received any response so far. Let us
consider various reasons why John, apparently,
is not responding to your e-mail:
Scenario - A : John receives your e-mail..
- Case 1 : John decides not to respond
- Case 2 : John is undecided or waiting for
something he will respond later
- Case 3 : John feels your e-mail does not
deserve a response
- Case 4 : John is on vacation
- Case 5 : John deletes your mail without reading,
thinking it to be another spam or virus
- Case 6 : John receives your garbled e-mail
and decides its too much taxing, deciphering
your mail (perhaps you sent html formatted mail
that John's mail client read as plain text)
Scenario - B : John Does Not Receive Your
Mail...
- Case 7 : John's ISP, personal Firewall or
mail filter deletes your mail before it reaches
John's mailbox
- Case 8 : You have wrongly typed john's e-mail
address
- Case 9 : John no longer uses this e-mail
address
- Case 10 : Your ISP fails to deliver mail
Scenario - C : John responds but you do
not receive....
- Case 11 : John uses wrong e-mail address
- Case 12 : You have placed wrong e-mail address
in 'From:' or 'Reply To:' column of your e-mail
- Case 13 : You use multiple e-mail boxes (all
free of course !) to send mails, however check
only one or two for incoming mail.
- Case 14 : Your ISP Or mail filter blocks
John's e-mail
- Case 15 : John's ISP fails to deliver mail
Confusing ? All along you thought John is the culprit,
dodging your e-mails. Now, you will have to take
into account other agents between you and John.
Let's give John a break and examine what factors
within your control may be contributing to this
communication failure. We shall examine common
mistakes and goof-ups that lead to no-response
situation.
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