This Is Exactly How Long People Expect You to Take to Respond to an Email — and Why It Matters
By Justin Bariso for Inc.
A. Four hours or less
B. One business day or less
D. None of these
Over 600 persons from various positions, companies, and industries responded. Dozens commented, sharing thoughts and insight into both how and why they answered the way they did.
Most interesting, though, was this: There was a single, clear-cut winner to this question.
By analyzing the responses and the reasons behind them, we’ll learn an important lesson in emotionally intelligent communication — and see how answering this question can help you run a better business. (If you find value in this lesson, you might be interested in my free course, which teaches you how to build emotional intelligence in yourself and your team.)
How long to respond to an email? One business day or less
OK, let’s cut to the chase. Here are the replies to the survey:
How long should it take to respond to an email?
Four hours or less: 21 percent
One business day or less: 60 percent
One business week or less: 9 percent
None of these: 10 percent
Of course, there’s a lot of nuance behind the answer to this question. Someone who gets a hundred or more emails a day will have a different perspective than the person who only gets 10 to 20. And industry, company culture, and job description will certainly influence how you answer as well.
“First question should be, does the email require a response at all?” said one participant. “And do I want to respond? If not, the answer is never. Second question is, is there an implicit deadline? Then try to meet it.
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