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.
