Discover best practices for sending follow-up emails and learn how long to wait for a reply. Our expert tips help you build stronger relationships with your customers.
Follow-up emails: How long should you wait for an email reply?
Email follow-ups can be an effective tool for customer-facing teams, but it’s important to approach them in the right way to ensure that you’re not spamming or annoying your customers.
One study revealed that 62% of customers expect a response to their email within four hours. Nine in ten wanted a response at least within 24 hours. It’s vital that you bear these timeframes in mind when determining when to follow up – 82% would stop doing business with a company that takes longer.
What is the appropriate amount of time to wait for an email reply
Knowing how long you should wait before following up on an email can be hard. The appropriate wait time can vary depending on the situation and the recipient. In some cases, you could wait for 3-5 business days before sending a follow-up email. In other cases, customers may want to be prompted sooner.
Keep in mind that people are often busy and may not have had a chance to read or respond to your email. Sending a follow-up email too soon can come across as pushy or impatient and may undermine the great customer experience you wish to provide.
Suppose you still haven’t received a response after 3-5 business days. In that case, you can send a polite follow-up email to check in and see if the recipient had a chance to review your email. In your follow-up email, you can reiterate the key points of your initial email and ask if you can provide any additional information.
Remember to always be respectful and professional in your communication, and avoid being pushy or aggressive in your follow-up emails. By following these guidelines, you can increase your chances of getting a response while maintaining a positive relationship with the recipient.
How to write a follow-up email that gets a reply (best practices for writing follow-up emails)
Writing a follow-up email that gets a reply can be challenging, but by following these expert tips, you can increase your chances of getting a response:
✏️ Keep it short and to the point:
Your follow-up email should be concise and easy to read. Avoid long paragraphs or overly complex language.
💎 Provide value:
In your follow-up email, try to provide additional value, such as sharing a relevant article or offering a new perspective on the topic.
👥 Show that you’re following up:
Start your email by referencing your previous email and mentioning that you’re following up.
End your email with a clear call to action, such as requesting a meeting or phone call.
👩💼 Be polite and professional:
Always be respectful and professional in your tone, even if you’re following up multiple times.
👥 Follow up more than once:
Don’t be afraid to follow up more than once if you don’t receive a response. However, always be respectful and polite in your tone.
💀 Provide a deadline:
If you’re following up on a request or deadline, provide a specific date by which you need a response.
Remember that your follow-up email aims to continue the conversation and build or maintain a relationship with the recipient. By following these best practices, you can increase your chances of getting a response while maintaining a positive and professional relationship with your customers.
How many follow-up emails should you send, and how often?
Deciding how many follow-up emails to send and how often to send them can depend on the situation and the recipient. However, here are some general guidelines to consider:
🔘Send at least one follow-up email:
If you don’t receive a response to your initial email, it’s appropriate to send at least one follow-up email to check in and see if the recipient had a chance to review your email.
🔘Wait at least 3-5 business days before sending a follow-up:
Give the recipient enough time to review your email before sending a follow-up. Sending a follow-up email too soon can come across as pushy or impatient.
🔘Follow up no more than twice:
In most cases, following up two times is appropriate. If you still haven’t received a response after two follow-ups, it may be best to move on.
🔘Space out your follow-ups:
If you decide to send multiple follow-up emails, space them out by at least a few days. This shows that you respect the recipient’s time and are not too aggressive.
Remember that each situation is unique, and the number of follow-up emails you send should depend on the context and relationship with the recipient. Generally, it’s important to be respectful and professional in your tone and not too pushy in your follow-ups.
How timetoreply can help you with emails follow-ups
timetoreply is an email performance optimization tool that helps businesses drive superior customer experiences by providing valuable insights and metrics on your email communication. Here are some ways timetoreply can help:
Measure response time:
timetoreply tracks your team’s email response times, so you can see how long it takes to respond to inbound customer emails. This helps you identify any bottlenecks or areas for improvement. timetoreply works with your existing email platform to help you transform your customer-facing team’s email performance in real-time.
Monitor team performance:
You can use timetoreply to track individual team members’ response times and performance. This helps you identify top performers and those who may need additional training or support. By using timetoreply’s email performance optimization software you can manage workloads and resources by understanding email volumes and peak times.
Introducing timetoreply Optimizer
Empower your team members to optimize their email performance in real-time with timetoreply’s Optimizer…the smart co-pilot for high performing teams.
🔵 100% customizable - choose the most important email metric for your team to work to
🔵 Smart recommendations - automatic prioritization of important emails
🔵 Live collaboration - power up your efficiency by assigning emails to other team members
🔵 AI-powered enhancements (coming soon) - get the inside track
With timetoreply’s Optimizer, your customer-facing teams will not only track their email performance, but transform it – in real time.
Improve customer satisfaction:
Responding quickly to cold emails and follow-ups can improve customer satisfaction and build stronger customer relationships. timetoreply is a potent email performance optimization & analytics tool designed to increase customer satisfaction.
Set benchmarks and goals:
With timetoreply, you can set benchmarks and goals for response times and track progress over time. This helps you continuously improve your email communication and customer service. Customers who receive good service are more likely to become loyal to your brand and make repeat purchases. This can lead to increased sales and revenue over time.
We purpose-built timetoreply to help businesses optimize the email performance of your customer-facing teams, improve customer satisfaction, and drive better customer experiences. Learn more here.
