Is email your primary form of business communication? Here’s a system we use at Standss to ensure that 1) we get reminded to follow up on emails and 2) we have all the information we need to actually follow up.
Email is our primary way of serving our customers… our sales and support team goes through many emails every day. We normally respond to emails in the order they come in… but some emails may not get responded to fully at first because:
1) We may need to get additional information ourselves
2) We may need to get more information from the customer.
We use the following system to ensure that the emails don’t end up slipping down the queue and being forgotten.
1. We add reminders to the email so that we get prompted to take action at the right time
To add reminders in Outlook:
- Right-click on the email
- Click Follow Up > Add Reminder…
-
Tick the Reminder checkbox
- Select the Date and Time that the reminder should pop-up
- Click OK
2. We add Notes to the Email to remind us why the email was not dealt with immediately
- Simply select the email in the Inbox
- Jot down the notes right beside the email… in the Notes Pane as shown below.
Later when the reminder screen appears, we do not have to read the whole email again or RETHINK why the email was not responded earlier… the notes provide us a quick summary.
Handling emails has become much more effective for our team with this system.
Try it out for yourself and see how Outlook’s Reminder and EmailNotes for Outlook can work for your business.
You can download a fully functional 30 day trial of EmailNotes from our website.
If you have other techniques of effective email handling, please share it with us and our readers by leaving a comment below.
I received your suggestion about setting ‘reminders’ for emails in Outlook but unfortunately, it does NOT work in Outlook 2010, so I was wondering what else you could suggest, as I utilised this feature in Outlook 2007 along with the feature to ‘colour code’ emails
Hello Kev,
I also use Outlook 2010 and this instructions work for you. Can you advise me what exactly did not work for you:
1. When you right-click on a email, you do not see the Follow Up option?
2. Although you set a reminder, there is no reminder pop-up at the set time?
You can email me on bhavsarm@blog.standss.com.fj so that I can further assist you.
Regards,
Mikir Bhavsar
That is definitely so wonderfully fantastic!! I am passing this information on to my sewing friends.