Email Response Time?

[MetalBoar]

This isn't an important post, more just kind of musing about things and wondered what others had to say.

I've recently started looking for a school again. I wanted to start up my training much sooner than this, but losing my business and moving cross country took a lot of adjustment and I've only recently gotten my work situation in order where I have both the time and the money for it to be practical. So, I've been looking at web sites and contacting places that look interesting to ask questions and find out how to watch or try out a class. I've found the variety of responses to be pretty interesting.

When I was first running my small strength training gym I was almost always working a second job, so I was sometimes not as responsive to enquiries from potential clients as would have been ideal. I soon learned that if I didn't respond to a phone call very quickly, like within a couple of hours, and the sooner the better, my chances of scheduling a demo workout with that person went way down, and if I didn't contact them until the following day, it was close to zero. People were a little bit more tolerant of a delayed response to email, but if I didn't get an email to them by the next day, again, the chance they'd come try out our gym was pretty small. So, I got fanatical about responding to any contact within 15 minutes, even if it meant pulling off the freeway to do it, and it got me a lot more clients as a result.

I've been emailing local MA schools to ask about watching a class and to clarify any questions I have about their training, and the responses have been all over the map.

At one extreme, there was a school that is very close to my house that teaches a style I'm interested in, but the pictures on their website appeared to be very kid focused and their adult marketing was very fitness focused. I almost didn't email them, but they were so close I decided I had to check them out. They had an automated form on their website to submit your email address for a response, so I sent it in and got an immediate automated response with some basic info, that offered to schedule me a free class and gave me an email address to contact them with other questions. Great! I emailed it with a series of questions, and was shocked to get a reply less than 10 minutes later from their office manager saying that she couldn't answer my questions but she'd forward my email to the school owner and I should get a response soon. I was impressed, and then even more impressed, when I got a really thorough set of answers to my questions from the owner less than 2 hours later. Their friendliness and competence shifted my assessment from being a school I wasn't sure was even worth emailing to being one that I really wanted to go and visit.

Another place had a form that I filled out that required a phone number as well as an email address. I don't like to get calls because I do creative work, don't have a fixed schedule, and don't want to be interrupted in the middle of a meeting or when I'm trying to write. In the "comments" section of their form I asked them to email instead of calling, because of my work. Of course, about 2 hours later, when I'm in a meeting, they call me and leave a message with a hard sales pitch, but no answers to any of my questions. Even though I had been really interested in this school, this sent them to the bottom of my list. I'm not saying I won't give them a chance, but I'm not going to get in touch with them again unless I exhaust all of the other good options.

At the other extreme, places have taken days to respond and in some cases haven't responded yet and don't seem likely to. If they're out of business, that would make sense, but some of these places seem to have very up to date websites with upcoming events or recent updates. I'd get it if these were all just clubs that maybe weren't too concerned about adding new members, but I'd expect the obviously commercial places to be more interested in new students.

What have your experiences been like? Any thoughts?

 

[skribs]

Some people just work better with different communication methods. They may not check email much, or they may check it all the time. Or they may have issues like I've been having with gmail lately, where they don't get notifications properly. At my last job, my voicemail never worked right, and I got tired of jumping through all the hoops to reset it. All of my communication out was through email, and all of my communication in was supposed to come through tickets anyway. So I just ignored it. Maybe email just isn't their thing, like voicemail isn't mine.

Those other schools that haven't gotten back to you yet may be good martial arts schools with people that are bad at customer engagement. That when you're inside the school they're great, but they struggle with new members.

Another place had a form that I filled out that required a phone number as well as an email address. I don't like to get calls because I do creative work, don't have a fixed schedule, and don't want to be interrupted in the middle of a meeting or when I'm trying to write. In the "comments" section of their form I asked them to email instead of calling, because of my work. Of course, about 2 hours later, when I'm in a meeting, they call me and leave a message with a hard sales pitch, but no answers to any of my questions. Even though I had been really interested in this school, this sent them to the bottom of my list. I'm not saying I won't give them a chance, but I'm not going to get in touch with them again unless I exhaust all of the other good options.

This school would be the exception. I don't think they should answer all your questions in a voicemail. But you're already interested, they don't need to be pushy. They should instead give you a good time frame to come in and get your questions answered.

 

[MetalBoar]

Some people just work better with different communication methods. They may not check email much, or they may check it all the time. Or they may have issues like I've been having with gmail lately, where they don't get notifications properly. At my last job, my voicemail never worked right, and I got tired of jumping through all the hoops to reset it. All of my communication out was through email, and all of my communication in was supposed to come through tickets anyway. So I just ignored it. Maybe email just isn't their thing, like voicemail isn't mine.

You've touched on the part that I'm really curious about. I agree that not everyone communicates the same way. The part I don't understand is why, with what is very likely not just a small business, but a micro business, they would publish a means of contact that they know they don't wish to use. If email isn't their thing, to the point they won't use it effectively, they shouldn't give the customer any option but to call, or text, or respond on Facebook, or whatever they will use. They'll lose some potential customers that way, but not as many as if they don't respond to their emails.

I don't consider myself to be the most driven, organized, regimented, or ambitious of entrepreneurs, have some issues with social anxiety, and, after doing years of phone based tech support and some phone sales, hate talking to strangers on the phone. Still, even when working 50+ hours a week for someone else, and at least 20 hours a week for myself and completely exhausted, I figured out that if I wanted to have a gym that paid for itself I needed to answer the phone and/or call people back very quickly.

Those other schools that haven't gotten back to you yet may be good martial arts schools with people that are bad at customer engagement. That when you're inside the school they're great, but they struggle with new members.

Sure, I get that. One school that didn't get back in touch with me for several days only has class Tuesday and Thursday. I emailed on a Friday morning and got a response the next Tuesday night. I figure they don't check their email except when they come in to teach. Makes sense, but it's obviously not a business that's intending to make money, more of a semi-commercial club that pays for itself and maybe gives the owner some beer money. That's cool, but I find the lack of response from places that have classes 5-6 days a week and appear to be making an attempt at commercial success confusing.

This school would be the exception. I don't think they should answer all your questions in a voicemail. But you're already interested, they don't need to be pushy. They should instead give you a good time frame to come in and get your questions answered.

I agree, answering more than a really simple question over voicemail is hard and probably counter productive. Still, I'm not generally asking a lot of questions and one of them is always "Can I come watch a class?". If you let people watch your classes, it seems like it's really easy to say something like, "Hey, I know you asked me to email, but I really didn't want to keep you waiting. You can come watch any class on Mondays or Wednesdays and I'll be happy to answer all your questions. Feel free to call me back at <number>". I'd still find it annoying that they ignored my request, but I would've let it pass.

This post wasn't so much about whether I'm going to train with a specific school or concerns about how I'm treated, I'm just baffled by how someone who seems to be trying to run a real, commercial, business is this casual about a potential customer. Maybe MA schools are too busy counting their money to bother with new students, but as a small gym owner I was super invested in every legitimate, potential, new client.

And maybe that's the explanation, that the owners of these schools aren't really operating them. I owned my gym with my wife and we were the only trainers, every new client really mattered to us, but if I were a 22 year old black belt, teaching classes in exchange for my training, I might not be too invested either.

 

[Alan0354]

They are all small business, response are individual, there is no standard on this. If you are that interested, go look at the class and decide. Even if you get them on the phone, it's all description, you really have to look at the class. Even the same style might be taught differently in different schools.

Like I joined a TKD class back in the 80s. It was so different when I watched the class. It's literally kick boxing Bruce Lee style. I looked at the class, they concentrated on hitting bags, sparring, boxing hands, front leg kicks like Bruce Lee, not anything like the traditional TKD. I joined on the spot. Back in 1984, that's the best you can get. That's the time when all the TMA school still doing big horse stance, punching from the side of the body under the shoulder type of useless stuffs and doing a lot of forms.

Go look at the class. My school advertised a lot on kids' class, but they had adult classes I join. Don't read the ads to judge.

 

[Gyakuto]

When I worked, the suggestion was to acknowledge the receipt of the email within 24hrs and then deal with it within a maximum of 5 days...they were often requests for one-to-one meetings in which complex information was required so took a little time to research and set up.

However, if I were selling a product or service, I’d automate the receipt of email (so the sender knows it’s arrived safely) perhaps adding general information that is not available on the website and respond to specific questions within 24hrs. Business is so competitive and, judging from the documentary, Kobra Krap, the US appears to be awash with rival martial arts schools so you probably need to get in there quickly!

Personally, a 24hr response to an email would indicate a business that is keen to offer good service, care for potential customers and enthusiasm. So if I’m keen on something, I always phone up rather than email.

On a slightly different note, if someone from a business says “Ronny Omelettes Shihan Sensei Hanshi will call you back when she’s free.” and offers to take your phone number, refuse! They never call you back 🙄

 

[Jimmythebull]

If I wanted to know something I normally phone directly but then again I'm like that no problem talking to people.
Regarding Emails sometimes it can also be maybe a bad sign if they answer too quickly. Might show there's not so much interest in the school. Of course we are speculating here as Alan wrote go and visit the school. Even if a school doesn't answer an email it doesn't mean they're bad.
I had this before and just went myself and they were nice people. Also I've found that in some schools if you bombard them with lots of questions they'll normally just write please come and visit us and we'll answer your questions.
Remember a big school might get more than a few enquiries a day. Time consuming answering lots of questions when that person might not join afterwards.

 

[skribs]

You've touched on the part that I'm really curious about. I agree that not everyone communicates the same way. The part I don't understand is why, with what is very likely not just a small business, but a micro business, they would publish a means of contact that they know they don't wish to use. If email isn't their thing, to the point they won't use it effectively, they shouldn't give the customer any option but to call, or text, or respond on Facebook, or whatever they will use. They'll lose some potential customers that way, but not as many as if they don't respond to their emails.

I don't consider myself to be the most driven, organized, regimented, or ambitious of entrepreneurs, have some issues with social anxiety, and, after doing years of phone based tech support and some phone sales, hate talking to strangers on the phone. Still, even when working 50+ hours a week for someone else, and at least 20 hours a week for myself and completely exhausted, I figured out that if I wanted to have a gym that paid for itself I needed to answer the phone and/or call people back very quickly.

Lots of people get things they think they're supposed to have or think will help them, and then don't properly use them.

Masters aren't perfect.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Another thing to keep in mind is they may just not get emails often. If you set up an email for new/potential students to reach out to you, and never hear from anyone, are you going to keep checking that email every day? More than likely you'll forget about it or check it once a week or so.

 

[MetalBoar]

Another thing to keep in mind is they may just not get emails often. If you set up an email for new/potential students to reach out to you, and never hear from anyone, are you going to keep checking that email every day? More than likely you'll forget about it or check it once a week or so.

This is exactly the kind of insight I was looking for, because it's completely alien to me. I understand that many young gen-x'er's like me and older Millennials, still prefer email, that many people who are older never built the habit and don't use email unless they have to, and many younger people have never had a computer other than their phone, or a game console, so they prefer to text and think that voicemail is rude. So, yeah, as I said, I understand these trends as they might be useful info for me trying to reach those demographics. What never really occurred to me was that it would be so common (so far ~50% of the schools I've contacted) for business owners to be so completely casual about publishing a means of contact and then ignoring it.

To answer the part in bold, yeah, I owned a small gym that eventually became pretty successful. I would sometimes go weeks, occasionally even months, without getting a lead for a new client via email and I would often go days without getting an email from an existing client. I checked my email every day, several times a day in fact. I would always check it before taking a client in for their workout and then when I got out of their session, and again anytime I'd been away from my phone such that I might have missed a notification. I'd check it on Sunday morning when I got out of the shower and Saturday evening after cooking dinner, it was just part of the routine of owning a business. I did this even though I had an automated response set up, because that doesn't help if you miss their follow up.

I was also checking for missed calls and texts at the same time, and even though phone calls are my least favored means of communication, I called back every voice mail and even all the missed calls I got. And when you publish a business number online, you get a LOT of spam calls. It's really easy to forward all of your emails, from whatever other accounts you have, to a gmail account. Then you get notifications on your phone and it's right there, no need to do anything to check your email except to look at your phone. If you can't afford a cheap Android phone these days you can't afford to open a business.

As I said, this is a weird idea for me. I don't consider myself a super driven entrepreneur. I've worked in tech start ups and I have a number of friends and acquaintances who've founded them. I'm a completely unmotivated slug in comparison to a lot of those guys. It just seems like checking email, whether you like email or not, is about the lowest possible bar to jump over if you want to have a successful business. You don't have to be as obsessive as I was, but you ought to be able to check it daily and have a set time every day when you respond to any emails you've gotten. If you don't get many, then you don't have to do anything but look at your phone once a day and then go about your business.

And maybe that's part of it, maybe it's a technology issue. I think forwarding email is very basic, and I'm sure that most small business owners in the Seattle area think it's easy, or at least have a nephew or daughter in law who does, but maybe Phoenix is even further behind the tech curve than I thought. Perhaps I should start a side hustle just consulting with small businesses to help them figure out how technology can make their lives easier. The simple version I'm thinking about would be an complete failure (and might get me laughed at) in Seattle, but it might make bank in my new home.

 

[MadMartigan]

As an owner/operator of a small (not designed for profit) club, I try to still get back to emails within 24hours.

Sometimes I wait that 24hours to calm my annoyance at needing to answer questions that are clearly available on the website (when it's also clear that the person sending the message has been on the site already but wants me to walk them through step by step instead of reading it themselves). In those cases, I take a little extra time to ensure a professionally toned message goes back out 😆.

 

[skribs]

@MetalBoar I alluded to this above, but one thing I'd like to reiterate is that sometimes technology changes can impact the process you use.

For example, I now have to actually check my email. I used to get notifications on my phone whenever I got a new email. That has stopped recently. I've gone through troubleshooting and nothing worked. So where previously I would get a notification, now I don't. I need to actually think, "I wonder if I've gotten any new emails recently" and go check it.

Plus, it can be difficult to remember to check all of your accounts if you have a business account and private account.

On top of that, I've noticed recently that GMail has added a new "feature" which can categorize messages. Sometimes this actually takes them out of your inbox. I was having problems with password resets on sites like Twitter and Hulu because they were being flagged as "Social Media" and "Notifications" and were not available in my inbox. So it's very possible that alerts from the website forms are actually getting filtered by the email service they use.

As an owner/operator of a small (not designed for profit) club, I try to still get back to emails within 24hours.

Sometimes I wait that 24hours to calm my annoyance at needing to answer questions that are clearly available on the website (when it's also clear that the person sending the message has been on the site already but wants me to walk them through step by step instead of reading it themselves). In those cases, I take a little extra time to ensure a professionally toned message goes back out 😆.

A lot of websites have old information, or just inaccuracies. A lot of schools I've looked at, the schedule is no longer accurate. Heck, the school I just joined changed names between when I talked to them back in May and when I started in August.

Then you have schools that the information is technically there on the website, but not in a way that makes sense to me. Or at least, I have questions. For example, there is a Taekwondo school that I was considering going, except I decided to jump 100% into BJJ. They have classes by belt and then some other classes:

Belt	Name
White, White/Yellow Yellow, Yellow/Green, Green Green/Blue, Blue, Blue/Red Red, Red/Black, All Deputy* Black	All Deputy* Tiger Star Sparring w/ Gear Nunchuck Family Poomsae Team Demo Team

Looking at this, since I am a 3rd Dan black belt in the organization, would I go to "Black" or "Family". It doesn't really say that the belt-color classes are kids' classes, but when my Dad talked to them, it sounded like all adults go to the "Family" class. (This was before I moved here, my parents were already living here, so my Dad scouted the local TKD schools).

And then they have "Sparring w/ Gear", does that mean we don't use gear in regular class? Is that a kids-only or adult class? Are Poomsae Team and Demo Team available to join or are they invite only? What is "Deputy", because it's listed separate from Red/Black and Black, but from their videos, Red/Black seems the highest before Black. And is that schedule up to date? The current one says "Effective 8/22/22", which means it's probably pretty close, but there's a chance it may have changed.

The schedule is on the website. The Master obviously knows what each class is, who is eligible, etc. Students or their parents also probably have a good idea, or at least know which applies to them (or their kids) and which don't. But as a prospective student, I would have questions. Maybe different questions if I was a brand new martial artist than one who is already moderately ranked by the organization.

These are all questions I would ask if I eventually do decide to go back to Taekwondo. But even though they might seem like questions that are about the website, it would be helpful to go over the questions with him to see what classes I could/wanted to take.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

This is exactly the kind of insight I was looking for, because it's completely alien to me. I understand that many young gen-x'er's like me and older Millennials, still prefer email, that many people who are older never built the habit and don't use email unless they have to, and many younger people have never had a computer other than their phone, or a game console, so they prefer to text and think that voicemail is rude. So, yeah, as I said, I understand these trends as they might be useful info for me trying to reach those demographics. What never really occurred to me was that it would be so common (so far ~50% of the schools I've contacted) for business owners to be so completely casual about publishing a means of contact and then ignoring it.

To answer the part in bold, yeah, I owned a small gym that eventually became pretty successful. I would sometimes go weeks, occasionally even months, without getting a lead for a new client via email and I would often go days without getting an email from an existing client. I checked my email every day, several times a day in fact. I would always check it before taking a client in for their workout and then when I got out of their session, and again anytime I'd been away from my phone such that I might have missed a notification. I'd check it on Sunday morning when I got out of the shower and Saturday evening after cooking dinner, it was just part of the routine of owning a business. I did this even though I had an automated response set up, because that doesn't help if you miss their follow up.

I was also checking for missed calls and texts at the same time, and even though phone calls are my least favored means of communication, I called back every voice mail and even all the missed calls I got. And when you publish a business number online, you get a LOT of spam calls. It's really easy to forward all of your emails, from whatever other accounts you have, to a gmail account. Then you get notifications on your phone and it's right there, no need to do anything to check your email except to look at your phone. If you can't afford a cheap Android phone these days you can't afford to open a business.

As I said, this is a weird idea for me. I don't consider myself a super driven entrepreneur. I've worked in tech start ups and I have a number of friends and acquaintances who've founded them. I'm a completely unmotivated slug in comparison to a lot of those guys. It just seems like checking email, whether you like email or not, is about the lowest possible bar to jump over if you want to have a successful business. You don't have to be as obsessive as I was, but you ought to be able to check it daily and have a set time every day when you respond to any emails you've gotten. If you don't get many, then you don't have to do anything but look at your phone once a day and then go about your business.

I'm actually of a similar mindset to you. I have an RSS feed set up so I know when I get emails, and if I ever created a very unused email address for a business or something, I'd likely have them forwarded to my main email address. But human nature is that if you keep doing something with no benefit, then you eventually slow down/stop doing it (general you, not you as an individual).

Also, keep in mind that business savvy/dedication does not (to my knowledge) have any correlation to martial arts skills or teaching ability. Same with tech skills. And there's probably a reason a lot of MA schools go under, sadly.

And maybe that's part of it, maybe it's a technology issue. I think forwarding email is very basic, and I'm sure that most small business owners in the Seattle area think it's easy, or at least have a nephew or daughter in law who does, but maybe Phoenix is even further behind the tech curve than I thought. Perhaps I should start a side hustle just consulting with small businesses to help them figure out how technology can make their lives easier. The simple version I'm thinking about would be an complete failure (and might get me laughed at) in Seattle, but it might make bank in my new home.

You'd be surprised of the number of lawyers, paralegals, receptionists, and doctors I've met doing IT work that would have no idea how to forward an email. I had to walk 3 people today, all professionals between 40 and 60 years old, through signing into their email account because the UI changed slightly. The pop-up was still the same, but now instead of being a light-grey background with dark-grey words, it is a white backround with green. And after it they have to click to send a confirmation to their phone (which they've all had to do many times before).

All 3 people panicked at this change. One called saying she couldn't get into her computer at all (she could, just not her email). Another told me that she thinks their network is down. Never underestimate how bad some people are with technology.

 

[MetalBoar]

I alluded to this above, but one thing I'd like to reiterate is that sometimes technology changes can impact the process you use.

For example, I now have to actually check my email. I used to get notifications on my phone whenever I got a new email. That has stopped recently. I've gone through troubleshooting and nothing worked. So where previously I would get a notification, now I don't. I need to actually think, "I wonder if I've gotten any new emails recently" and go check it.

Yep, tech fails are a thing, I just wouldn't expect it to account for more than maybe a couple of schools.

Plus, it can be difficult to remember to check all of your accounts if you have a business account and private account.

Yeah, this is why I was saying they should forward (or more accurately configure gmail to fetch) all of their business email to a gmail (or whatever) account. Then they'd get them all in one place and if they set it up right (maybe the only way to set it up, I don't remember) they can even send a reply from their business account, right out of gmail. This seems super basic to me, but I'm learning that it isn't. Which is why I'm now thinking about a side hustle.

On top of that, I've noticed recently that GMail has added a new "feature" which can categorize messages. Sometimes this actually takes them out of your inbox. I was having problems with password resets on sites like Twitter and Hulu because they were being flagged as "Social Media" and "Notifications" and were not available in my inbox. So it's very possible that alerts from the website forms are actually getting filtered by the email service they use.

I expect you can set up a filter to fix this, I've never needed to, so I'm not sure how well supported it is in gmail. I've got some other workarounds, but that "feature" can definitely make you miss things that are important.

 

[MetalBoar]

You'd be surprised of the number of lawyers, paralegals, receptionists, and doctors I've met doing IT work that would have no idea how to forward an email. I had to walk 3 people today, all professionals between 40 and 60 years old, through signing into their email account because the UI changed slightly. The pop-up was still the same, but now instead of being a light-grey background with dark-grey words, it is a white backround with green. And after it they have to click to send a confirmation to their phone (which they've all had to do many times before).

All 3 people panicked at this change. One called saying she couldn't get into her computer at all (she could, just not her email). Another told me that she thinks their network is down. Never underestimate how bad some people are with technology.

I really wouldn't be surprised, I'm just surprised they can't find anyone to help. I started doing desktop tech support for my school district when I was in high school in 1987 and did phone support for Windows 95 when it launched, through a Microsoft partner (the people on the same queue working directly for MS are all millionaires now, if they didn't just cash in their options as fast as they got them). I've been in and out of the tech world ever since and seen some truly astonishing levels of cluelessness and sometimes down right crazy.

It's funny that you mention both lawyers and doctors in your short list. When I took a class on Windows NT, back in about 1994, the instructor was a systems consultant. First class, he says, "If you're thinking about getting into consulting, I have one rule for you; No lawyers, No doctors." We asked why and he replied, "They both think they're the only professionals in the world deserving of respect, they don't want to pay you, and the lawyers will sue you out of reflex". When I started my own IT consulting biz 5-6 years later I didn't follow his rule, and I never got sued, but I did find that doctors and lawyers were often as described otherwise. Not to bag on any individuals, I've had some great business relationships with people in both professions, but as a class, yeah, they often really needed and wanted my services but didn't think they were worth paying for or that my time was valuable.

 

[skribs]

Yep, tech fails are a thing, I just wouldn't expect it to account for more than maybe a couple of schools.

Unless they all use GMail.

 

[skribs]

I really wouldn't be surprised, I'm just surprised they can't find anyone to help. I started doing desktop tech support for my school district when I was in high school in 1987 and did phone support for Windows 95 when it launched, through a Microsoft partner (the people on the same queue working directly for MS are all millionaires now, if they didn't just cash in their options as fast as they got them). I've been in and out of the tech world ever since and seen some truly astonishing levels of cluelessness and sometimes down right crazy.

It's funny that you mention both lawyers and doctors in your short list. When I took a class on Windows NT, back in about 1994, the instructor was a systems consultant. First class, he says, "If you're thinking about getting into consulting, I have one rule for you; No lawyers, No doctors." We asked why and he replied, "They both think they're the only professionals in the world deserving of respect, they don't want to pay you, and the lawyers will sue you out of reflex". When I started my own IT consulting biz 5-6 years later I didn't follow his rule, and I never got sued, but I did find that doctors and lawyers were often as described otherwise. Not to bag on any individuals, I've had some great business relationships with people in both professions, but as a class, yeah, they often really needed and wanted my services but didn't think they were worth paying for or that my time was valuable.

Help usually costs money. Martial Arts schools aren't known for making people rich.

 

[MetalBoar]

Help usually costs money. Martial Arts schools aren't known for making people rich.

You're from the Tacoma area originally, right? Is Tacoma so different from Seattle that half your adult students weren't either tech workers or tech enthusiasts and the school's owner didn't have a nephew or cousin working at Amazon or Microsoft?

You could see the Microsoft main campus from my longest running gym location and then the next one was in north Seattle. Even my 70+ year old clients had someone in their life that would have been happy to set up email forwarding for them and a lot of them wouldn't have needed it. I was often surprised that I got cool ideas for how to use tech to make my business easier by talking with other small business owners in the area. And I don't mean tech businesses either, things like the gyro shop or the natural foods store. That sort of thing just seemed pretty pervasive in the area.

EDIT: I should add that when I had an IT consulting biz, it was the year 2000, dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and you were special if you could install software. Things have gotten a lot easier and more universally accessible in the last 2 decades.

 

[MetalBoar]

Unless they all use GMail.

I use gmail and I haven't had any problems, outside of some minor annoyance with the change in interface you mentioned. It still notifies me of incoming mail, etc. and I've not heard complaints from my wife or anyone else I know on gmail. I'm no Google fan boy, and I'm sure you're having legit problems that are their fault. I'm just dubious that they can account for more than 10% of the communication issues I've experienced.

 

[skribs]

We had more medical than technical. I'm in IT, but I'm not very good with web.

 

[Gyakuto]

As an owner/operator of a small (not designed for profit) club, I try to still get back to emails within 24hours.

Sometimes I wait that 24hours to calm my annoyance at needing to answer questions that are clearly available on the website (when it's also clear that the person sending the message has been on the site already but wants me to walk them through step by step instead of reading it themselves). In those cases, I take a little extra time to ensure a professionally toned message goes back out 😆.

And your happy to admit such people to you club?

When a University student asked a question we’d often reply, ‘please refer to page X of the student handbook, which you have signed to say that you have read and will refer to first.’ 🙄