Toister Performance Solutions, who assists organizations with customer service, conducted an annual survey on how swiftly customers expect businesses to respond to their emails. In 2014, a four-hour response time was deemed acceptable (the point at which about 80% of people were happy). By 2015, this had moved up to about one hour. In 2014, only 4% of people said they expected a response within 15 minutes; by 2015, 14.5% expected that.

This survey illustrates the importance of setting expectations clearly and at the outset of initial communication. One way to accomplish this is to setup an auto response message that informs users when they can expect a response. Be specific whether it is the same business day or within a few hours. Include a means for urgent requests to reach you encouraging such individuals to call you directly. Here’s one example of an autoresponder to set expectations…

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