If you send someone an email message, how much time elapses after pressing send before you begin to wonder why you haven’t gotten a response? Most folks in the marketplace all have inner expectations – a way to measure whether something is meeting our approval (or not).
A 2018 survey of email response time conducted by Toister Performance Solutions shows a breakdown of these expectations. According to the results of the 1,200 surveyed: 13% expect you to respond within two days; 43% expect you to respond within 1 day; 14% expect you to respond within four hours; 19% expect you to respond within 1 hour; and 11% (an impatient lot) expect to hear from you within 15 minutes.
As TPS founder Jeff Toister explained in his blog, you might think you’d be right on track if you responded within 1 day (because 43% is the largest number). But not so fast. Because he’s a customer service consultant (and not a “how can we get by on the minimum” guru), he didn’t look at the number that would make the most people happy, but how these numbers will help you stand out.
By adding all but the last category, he determined: You will meet expectations for 89% of your customers if you respond to email within one hour. And Toister’s takeaway adds up to this: “Businesses should target a response time standard of one hour, with 15 minutes representing world-class service.”