Do you play hard to get?

Paul in Cannon Beach

What is your response to phone call ratio? Meaning, what percentage of your phone calls are you actually able to return?

How about e-mails?

Be honest.

For me, I estimate its about 85-90 percent for phone calls (0 percent for vendors calling) and 60-70 percent for e-mails.

How about you?

cnghr

I probably return 95% of phone calls (0% for somebody who's just trying to sell me something) and 80% of e-mails. Often with e-mails a response isn't required but I'll still reply with "okay, thanks for letting me know" or something else to acknowledge that I received the e-mail.

joannie

Discounting vendors, I return 100% of phone calls and e-mails. Don't get me started on vendors. I hate to receive cold calls from vendors who immediately start their sales pitch without asking if I have time to talk to them. It especially irks me when they are calling on my toll free number.

HRQ

Interesting question.

Emails, I respond 100% to those containing an actual question or requesting information. Maybe 50% to those just sending FYI's. Depends on whether or not I have something to add.

Phone calls, 0% response rate to solicitation calls. Probably 75% to the rest. I get so many calls that I can't keep up. Often they call me again before I've even gotten to their first message.

At one point, I considered updating my incoming recording to say "Do not leave multiple messages. This will not inspire me to answer you more quickly. Leaving multiple messages will instead cause me to move your request to the very end of my queue where it will stay for eternity."

Susan in La

I respond to 99.9% of phone calls (there are some people who you really don't want to talk to), and 100% of e-mails needing a response. Those that are just for information, I usually don't answer.

Irie

I respond to all calls immediately with the exception of vendors, insurance brokers, etc.

E-mails get responded to immediately unless of course it's from a vendor then they go right in the trash. Even if the message doesn't require a response I acknowledge receipt with a "thanks".

drehil

Calls - 85% overall - (100% of employee calls)
Emails- 85% overall - (100% of employee emails)

I try to answer most employee calls immediately but I let vendor calls go to voice mail.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Do you measure this? How do you know for sure you are responding to 100 percent of your calls and e-mails?

I am not doubting anyone who has made this claim but just seeking some advice on how to measure responses.

100 percent response is the goal of course. Not responding is the height of arrogance in my opinion. That said, a person could spend all day e-mailing and calling or at least let their schedule be totally driven by responding.

Just thinking out loud here.. I may try calling a few of you later today and verify your claims.

Irie

Another question could be: How many calls do you actually answer? Our phones have caller ID and if I don't recognize the number I let them go to voice mail then I return the necessary ones. I don't want to answer the phone and have someone on the other end wanting to know if I have time for a survey that will only take a few minutes and then ends up being 15 minutes.

stilldazed

I measure by the number of post-it notes on my desk that eventually go in the garbage. As for emails, if I don't get an immediate answer back to the inquiry, I print the email and add it to the stack. So again, the number in the garbage vs. the number on my desk. Archaic, I know, but it works for me.

As for # responded to, I'll add a different feature that no one mentioned yet. How promptly? I probably effectively return (with definitive response) 75% to 85% within 1 to 2 business days. Eventually, all that actually needed a response are returned. Timeline--sometimes days, sometimes weeks. How many multiple requests because I didn't follow up yet, probably well under 5%, again measured by my measuring system of # of duplicate messages on post-it notes and printed emails on my desk.

ray a

Paul, I respond to precisely 68.95% of my phone calls and 74.37% of my emails. The majority of the emails I don't respond to are from you. Don't ask how I measure this data. It's a trade secret.

Paul in Cannon Beach

By the way, you never answered my last e-mail.

ray a

You are correct.