let me ask you a serious business question GFY. If a company wants to do business
 

with your company and at your request sends you an email requesting more info, details, ideas, or whatever. how long does it take you to email them back? maybe the question should be how long should the other company wait for a reply before losing faith and questioning your competence?

Honestly I try to reply to EVERYTHING within HOURS. Even weekends at 2am. I live to work and I want to ensure people can get in touch with me any time.

im the same way. on a rare occasion it might take me a day to reply, but most of the time i get back at them within hours. too bad some people in this industry got alot to learn about good business relations

bump fo some more answers

I think a reply to an email should take no more than 24 hours if it's during the week.
If it's a weekend or a holiday then probably longer.

This whole "hit me up on ICQ" and expecting someone to contact you in 15 minutes or else you'll take your business elsewhere is a little absurd IMHO.

Remembering that you dont want to appear desperate, getting them off to them within a few hours of normal business, is fine. Like say 7pm. or meaybe early like 6am. But in the middle of a holiday weekend, when they are most likely closed anyway. Hmmm. Looks a bit desperate.

24 hours, or Monday if sent on a Friday. Even if the email can't contain everything I need to know, I like to hear a "I'll have that for you by Wednesday". At least then I know when to expect something.

I try to email back quickly.

some people need to take time to have a normal life...weekends etc

howevr if days went by during a normal work week..id be pissed

well you can extend the contact period by having an auto responder that provides info like faq etc and when they can expect a contact back...

most people just want to feel like they are on your priority list... :2 cents:

no matter what it is i can usually get back to someone within 24 hours. weekend/weekday it shouldn't take longer then 24 hours unless you can't get to your computer for some reason.

yeah see i agree with these timeframes for good business. so what if its been over a week and you still havent heard from them?

Never rule out the possibility that whomever you emailed never received it due to their Spam filters.
Businesses that have been around for a while receive tons of spam and legit emails sometimes get flagged, tossed or lost in the shuffle when going thru a inbox full of CRAP. (this is where ICQ comes in)

If they did get the email and never responded then it could be they are not interested in doing business with you, hence no response.

Cheers,
BV

a percentage of emails never reach the recipient. resend and also call and make sure you take into account that if you send an email it is possible that recipient never got it.

Maybe they're spending some time on a comprehensive proposal. It depends on the type of business you plan to do together.

Of course, since they contacted you in the first place they SHOULD have been prepared.

As much as 24-48hrs depending on the nature of the email, like if they have to coordinate stuff to reply properly or the level of the person, I get a around 100 emails a day, but then Mayor gets like 500, so his response time might be a little longer just out sheer volume of mail... :pimp

yeah maybe it did get lost or overlooked. but it still doesnt improve my confidence in the company or that person. maybe im being a little unreasonable with my demands but i take my business seriously and i hold myself to the same standards.

^ What he said :thumbsup ^

i answer all my emails the moment i receive them (if im online)

If it's net-related biz, 24-48 hours, - and don't expect a response over weekends. Some folks have a life other than work.

After a week and no response, it can be a few things including - (a) they never got your email (b) they are useless :winkwink:

yeah it was net-related business. i emailed him last friday and then again on tuesday as a reminder and still havent heard shit from them. disappointing to say the least, especially since i had my doubts about their competence to begin with.

Generally if they are serious, I will give them no longer than a week, I agree with the posters above with e-mail not always getting to the final recipient, but a phone call or U.S. Priority Mail is always one way to get someones attention. :thumbsup

generally i agree with you about phone or certified letter, but i dont have either for them. all i have is the email address he gave me here on GFY. also, i probably wouldnt go to all that trouble anyway since they were the ones asking for our business. we probably could have made alot of money with them but im not going to beg a program to let us send them sales.

Ah.. got ya! Gut feeling is often more accurate than anything PE - even if they do respond.

The most successful people in this biz will get back to you within a day. Usually af ew hours and I don't mean the guys that figured out how to make 20 to 50k a month 8 years ago and still do the same amount. It is the guys that made 50k a month 8 years ago and make hundreds of thousand or even milliions a month today.There is a big difference then making some money and being successful in my books.

yeah im starting to think the same thing

some people don't like to reply right away, they think that makes them looks cool. i think that's not the right way to do biz. y try to make my replies as soon as possible even if i'm really busy

I make a phone call email is not 100% the phone is.

We need to do some business!!!

like i said, i emailed him twice. if their email fucked both of them up, i dont think i would want to do biz with them anyway. but maybe thats just me

Too many assume an email sent is an email recieved. :error

within 12 hours if im not out of town or something special is going on

I have my mailer confgured to autmotically dump all incoming mail

soon, soon...or you lose the client

I noticed some companies need some help in this dept... good thread for educational purposes

or well...the other option is to fuck the client ;-)