Answering business emails

[$tevie]

I feel like an email regarding business should be answered even if you have nothing to say. If someone sends me information about something I am working on, I feel compelled to respond with a "thank you" or an "okie dokie" or something, just so they know that the email did, indeed, reach its desired recipient and I have read it.

But I am beginning to think that I am the only person out there who feels this way.

I do not have infinite faith that all my emails will get where they are supposed to. In fact, with our server, I know there's a good chance some of them won't.

So now I'm wondering, would you be irritated by receiving my "thank yous" and "okie dokies" and somethings in response to your emails?

[papercup]

I make it a point to respond. Like the CB days, you never know if the transmission was received..

Roger that.

[jimbrady]

If the sender would be likely to ever think about the email he sent and whether you'd received it, then send your reply. Don't make a policy of always responding, because the conversation has to end sometime.

[Zoidberg]

Agreed; I always give at least a "message received" type of email. I rarely get one (I usually have to hound my clients with the "did you get the file; is that it; are we finished with this submittal" message).

[$tevie]

Of course. I am talking about answering an email with information such as delivery locations or quantities needed. Not a "thanks and have a nice day" email.

[M A V I C]

Nope. Email can't be relied upon and is often used to evade responsibility.

For any important communication with a client or within the office, we have a web-based system we used to project management which keeps a log of all correspondence and it's the responsibility of each project member to check it (though it does email them when something gets posted, but they know that's just a luxury and they still need to check it in case they don't get the email.)

I did have one person who requested that I always reply back when I got emails from him. So I setup an auto-responder to do that. It annoyed him because he got so many responses and it was always the same. He didn't think it was considerate for me to not manually respond to each one. I don't think it's considerate for someone to expect that I reply to each one of their emails manually to tell them I got it.

[ztirffritz]

request a read response

[Frank Pardue]

In a large business enviroment where receiving 100 emails or more a day is very common, receiving "thank yous" and "okie dokies" are a pain. One more email clogging the In box, that has to be deleted because you only have a fixed mailbox size, and if you exceed it, all your incoming mail is bounced back.

My suggestion is DON"T DO IT.

If you receive a voice message from someone, do you always call that person back to say to say "thank you" or "okie doky", probably not, so why should email be different.

My $.02.

[chas_m]

I do not respond back to emails where I have nothing to add. I hate emails that try and force a "return-receipt-requested" thing on me.

[MacMagus]

If and only if it is a business e-mail from an important client would I make it a policy to always respond.