EER Rant Chapter 4: Read the Emails I Send You

Seriously.  I don't write emails for my health.  The purpose of my email is to convey information that you have requested or that I know you are going to need.  That doesn't mean I never want to talk to you or that I am unwilling to answer any questions about the information within emails that I've sent.  What it means, however, is that, if you aren't going to call me and ask me questions, you will follow the directions I have sent you.

Why?  If you are a client, you have indicated that you want to do business and so it is inferred that you also want to make money.  If you are a coworker, you are working on a project with me that is designed to make money.  When you are doing something that you've never done before, you can't just make up the rules because you will either lose money for yourself, for my company, or both.

Just last week, I received an email from a client that contained the following:

When we sent our items, we did not follow the return process exactly as it was laid out for us in the email...What I was wondering is, would this be a problem that may need to be dealt with?

The answer?  Yes it is a problem that needs to be dealt with.  In fact, it's an extremely big issue now.

I responded immediately with what needed to happen if there was any chance of fixing it and I indicated the level of time sensitivity.

It's been a week since I sent that reply and he's not provided the required information.

I will hear from him in the next few days.  He won't have the information.  He will want me to fix it even though I am no longer able to fix the situation.  I will have to answer the email -- will he read it this time?

At least he didn't use the Urgent flag.