- Should we do the production deployment on 25th?
- Do we go with Theme 1, 2 or 3?
- Did you get a response from your hosting company regarding the space issue?
- When can we schedule the demo?
And hundreds of other such questions are waiting to be answered by your Client, and you can’t move forward without a proper answer and as a result the project which belongs to both of you suffers.
Many times the manner in which we communicate or write the emails to the client becomes a culprit for delayed or no response.
So what can you do to get a response from your client who hasn’t responded despite multiple follow-ups, due to his other commitments or some other genuine reasons (and not necessarily because he hates you):
1. Remind about the Reminder
When you are following up on your previous emails (for which you didn’t receive any response) make sure you remind him that this is a reminder or a follow-up email. Follow up on the same thread and do not start a fresh one.
2. What do you Need?
At the beginning of the mail itself mention what you need from the client (a yes/no answer, credentials, permission, etc.) and avoid writing a descriptive paragraph where he needs to dig out what exactly you are asking him to do. Even if you have mentioned it in an earlier thread, repeat it in a couple of lines (and point him to below thread for details)
“We need your go-ahead to deploy V2.5 (already certified on QA) to production on 25th September starting at 10 AM EST.”
“Can you send the SMTP server credentials for 10.23.160.2, we have everything else ready to start testing.”
3. Provide some Details
In case the matter has been going on for a few days, and there is a chance that client might have forgotten some details of the item you are discussing than after mentioning what you need (point 2), mention some vital information about the topic.
” V2.5 which contains stories SP20, SP21, SP24, SP26, SP30 (with a one line short description of each) and was certified on 15th September by QA is being planned for production on 25th Sep 10 AM EDT. There were two low category defects which business agreed to be fixed in the next release. The team will finish the production deployment in around 3 hours and John C. from the business will do the smoke test, which shall take around 1 hour.”
4. Reiterate
At the end of the email reiterate what you need. Possibly frame it as a Yes or No response or in the form of choices that he can quickly pick.
“Should we go with Theme 1 (Red), 2 (Blue) or 3 (Gold)?”
5. Mention the Urgency
If you are on a tight deadline and want the response by a specific date and time, do mention that.
“It is important that you provide your approval latest by 23rd September 10 AM EST for us to make the 25th September Production migration happen.”
6. Make it Visible
Often your email will be drowned in an ocean of emails that the client would be checking in the morning. So make sure you mark the mail as “Important” (and mark only the important emails as important) or mention the words “IMPORTANT” or “NEED IMMEDIATE RESPONSE” so that it catches the Client’s eyes.
7. Be Courteous
Even when you are pushing the Client for an early response, be courteous. Express that you understand the lack of response and his other priorities, but it is crucial at this time that he responds to keep the project moving forward.