how to ensuring my team respond promptly to emails

can anyone recommend some software to monitor how quickly my team respond to emails, as id like to t

Didn't find your answer?

We have a team of about 20 people, running a chartered accountancy practice. Perceived indifference is the easiest way to lose clients and i'm not feeling reassured at the moment. In truth my team are amazing and really care, but we let oursleves down with this.  In the last couple of weeks we've had some client complaints about how long it takes to get a reply form my team, and actually lost two clients we never should have lost.. We have tried performance standards, but its all self evaluated. I have a great team who do care, but this is really somethinmg that clients notice.

Is there any software we can use, or even raise a ticket enquiry (actually I hate the idea of this, but at least its accountable)?

Replies (4)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

Logo
By marks
25th Feb 2018 22:52

Personally I would let the client choose how quickly they want you to reply.

So if they want a reply within 7 working hours they pay for the platinum correspondence service.

If happy to wait up to 14 working hours they pay for the gold correspondence service.

If they are happy to wait up to 5 working days they dont pay for the correspondence service but they cant moan when they dont get reply within a few hours.

It is all about setting client expectations at the start.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Vaughan Blake1
26th Feb 2018 11:24

Given how many emails fly around these days, given 20 staff you will be looking at monitoring around 1000 emails per week. With a monitoring system you would be in danger of getting info overload! Even then you will probably find out too late on a vital one as it gets lost in the blizzard of info.

I think you best approach is further training/[***] kicking. If you set out an office procedure for this, and ensure that it is stuck to. At what point, and under what circumstances do you see emails? Do you have a procedure to ensure staff are not sending out controversial stuff or are unwittingly 'exceeding their skill set'?

Do you have an 'out of office/away from desk' procedure for emails. I now find that some clients start questioning if I have received the email within a couple of hours, the amount of time one could be in a meeting. I find this deeply irritating!

Do you have a system of acknowledging emails when a reply may be delayed whilst research is done?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By andy.partridge
26th Feb 2018 11:47

In my experience the client gripe is not how long it takes to sort a problem but not knowing if the problem is being addressed at all.

If members of your team don't even acknowledge the client email that must be a training issue, but could be mitigated by an auto-response communication.

Thanks (0)
John Toon
By John Toon
26th Feb 2018 12:10

Get yourself a decent CRM and you will be able to see when every client was last contacted by email, post, message or phone.

Thanks (0)