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Should you reply straight away to people making enquiries?

  • idealmike Level X3
    • 6

    Write the reason you're deleting this FAQ

    Should you reply straight away to people making enquiries?

    I'm making this in response to a sub-discussion my and Cristian were having in the thread Is the response time attributed to order completion time? In that thread we were discussing whether PM's are taken into consideration when calculating your response time. I was saying that when someone sends you a message about your service, enquiring about it as a prospective buyer, that you shouldn't reply straight away. But rather you should wait some time before replying.

    I actually read an article about this on Forbes website or some freelancer tips site or something that was saying that you shouldn't always instantly reply to people. You should wait some time before you do.

    The reason was that by waiting some time to answer/reply to that enquiry, you give the impression that you're busy and working on things which makes it look like you have work on which gives the impression that people are using you/your services.

    Where as if you reply straight away, almost instantaneously, it shows that you aren't busy and have no work on and can give the impression that you have no buyers and work on. And that can make people wonder why you don't have any work on.

    They could end up thinking;

    • Why don't they have any work on?
    • Are they not any good and being hired by anyone?
    • Are they desperate for work?

    Where as taking the time to reply they might think;
    • That you was busy and didn't have time to instantly respond.
    • You are busy because you have work to do for your clients.

    Also taking the time to respond, because you was busy, you could explain that to the person enquiring and say that you apologize for the delay in responding but you was working on some clients orders for them which could be true and will give the impression that people are hiring you and your work is genuine and good. Although replying fast might also help as well as people do like efficiency. They like it when you take the time out to quickly respond to messages and that can work in your favor as well.

    Or does it depend entirely on the question being asked?

    Because sometimes some people ask daft questions and they are usually questions that have been asked before and from experience, the people that ask that specific question (no matter the answer given) never go no further anyway. Where as some questions people ask, you know they are genuine buyer questions and being fast in replying with the right answer could result in a sale.

    But what is your view on this?

    Do you agree that sometimes, taking a little time to respond can show that you are busy which can work in your favor. Or do you just reply to people making enquiries about one of your services straight away as fast as you can?

    Strike fast while the iron is hot and give the impression you're not busy.

    Or wait a while before replying because you are to make it look so?

    What's your view and why? Should you reply straight away to people making enquiries?

    #Response #Time #Forbes Freelance
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    Lynne

    Lynne

    Oh this is an interesting debate.

    I am a buyer here and I am a very impatient person. In fact I sent someone a private message this morning asking about a service and I have not yet received a response. The was 8 hours ago... so the chances of that seller getting my order is slipping away right now with every minute that passes. We'll see what happens when I get my response but right now it is looking slim.

    I don't mind not receiving a response within seconds but if I know the company I am dealing with is in my same time zone and I send my query during normal working hours I expect a response within an hour. I don't care if they don't answer my question immediately but I want to know within an hour that the person has my message and that they are on it... that they give a hoot Should you reply straight away to people making enquiries? If I get a message back saying they are in a meeting and will come back to me as soon as possible or perhaps busy with an order or short staffed.. whatever it is I am happy. But don't ignore my message for 8 hours.

    I do get what you say about making people wait a bit so they think you are busy, but I personally like to be attended to in some way asap.
    10 years ago

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    Cristian

    Cristian

    For SEOclerks at least and other similar marketplaces I always found that replying straight away to an inbox message will drastically increase your chances to land a new order.

    I found that most of my services I also offered in one way or the other by other sellers. So if I'm late in replying to the PM, like, let's say, a couple of hours, that potential client may be already gone because most probably contacted multiple sellers and bought from the one that answered and show that he is online, active and wants to work.
    10 years ago

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    procoder

    procoder

    Being busy or not, I always try to respond to my buyers/new clients as fast as possible, actually I think that depends because some want fast response, and some don’t mind late responses, but I’ve noted that if you’ll reply fast to your buyers will increase the chance to turn that buyer into your client, and I can say that this is working for me.
    10 years ago

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    Barida

    Barida

    My view on this is that it depends on how things are working at the moment. I reply straight away, but try as much as I could to include a subtle deadline to each response to make the client reply quickly or forget about doing business with me. Doing the deadline of a thing and adding specific time to when the business will be done will go a long way to letting clients know how busy that I am.
    8 years ago

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    Corzhens

    Corzhens

    When I am sending an inquiry via text, email or private message in forums or social media, I am expecting a quick response. And when the response takes more than 24 hours then the impression I get is that they are not good in their services regarding deadlines and deliveries. A simple question that they cannot reply at once means just that – being negligent of their duty to the public. When I had a business, an inquiry is considered a prospective client so you should give him utmost importance.
    8 years ago

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    samsun8521

    samsun8521

    Your tips was really useful for me and i impress to see this shared information. the many interesting things are available in tank trouble 3 series game, i would like to connect these tiles each other tiles and perfectly completed this war game.
    7 years ago

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