Communication: Details Are There for a Reason

We all know how important communication is in business, but we can easily get overwhelmed by the amount of communication we get. But remember that the details are there for a reason, so instead of rushing through and potentially missing them, slow down and pay attention so you don't end up creating extra work for yourself or the others with whom you're working. Nobody wants that! Connect with me through your favorite platform: https://pods.link/aardvarkgirl -- I’m guessing we’ve all been in this scenario. You send an email to a client with some questions. He responds, but doesn’t answer everything, so you have to follow up with a reminder about the other missing information. Or you send an email giving someone two choices – would you rather do A or B? And she responds, “Yes.” So you have to reply asking which option she’s saying yes to. How about when you put all the details for a project into an email. You take the time to make it clean and organized so someone can reference it for everything they need. And then you get a text that says what time is this thing? And it’s the first thing on the list you sent. Eventually you end up wondering why you even bother spending your time crafting thoughtful emails when they’re just going to get ignored anyway. I don’t know about you, but I find this incredibly frustrating. Most of the time, waiting for these answers slows everything down and you know that if they would’ve just answered in the first email, you could’ve both moved on and saved time. And we all know how important time is. But the extra back and forth actually creates more work for both of you. I don’t know anyone who wants more emails in their inbox. Most of us are trying to get rid of them. Now, I’m not talking about when someone asks, “How are you?” or some other small talk question that doesn’t necessarily need to be answered. I’ve mentioned how I feel about that before, and if it’s in an email I’m not going to answer it unless it’s somehow relevant to the job. I also don’t mean when someone writes a novel and you genuinely don’t have time to read through everything. But even then, rather than giving a half-hearted response that makes it obvious you didn’t read it all, I think the right thing to do is to say something like, “There’s a lot of information here and I don’t have time to give it my proper attention today, but I will get back to you when I’m able. If there is anything pressing, please send the specifics to me separately.” That way you’re acknowledging that you’ve seen the message and managing their expectations about when they’ll hear back from you. It’s also a less offensive way of saying, “Hey, this email is way too long.” I just did that today. I got an email from someone who wants to be a guest on the podcast and he sent me a ton of links to his bio, his podcast, interviews he’s done on other podcasts, and more. I don’t have time to research him yet so I sent a quick note saying, “I’m in the middle of a project so I might not be able to get back to you for a few weeks, but wanted to let you know I received it. Thank you for reaching out.” That took less than a minute to write and it accomplished two things – it showed that I respect the time he took to send me his pitch, and it spared me from receiving more follow-up messages asking if I had received his email or if I had any questions. And that was someone I don’t even know. But that’s how I treat everyone, whether it’s a client, a vendor, a friend… everyone gets the same level of respect because that’s important to me. The details are there for a reason. If we’re asking, it’s likely because we need the answer to do our jobs properly. Most of us don’t waste our time putting frivolous questions in our clients’ inboxes. And if you do, stop. That’s not okay, unless it’s a humorous meme of some sort or something that will make someone laugh. Everyone needs that every now and then. But if you get an email, remember that someone took the time to wr