Don't waste a word
I had the house recarpeted last year and again early this year (don't ask). During Carpeting Round Two, I asked the team to leave some of the original carpet for me to make into mats.
Not having a carpet overlocker on hand, I googled a couple of local businesses and filled in their online forms with the measurements.
Less than half an hour later...
Andrew sent me this text.
It did the job
I wouldn't call it a punctuation masterpiece, but it communicated what I needed to know when I needed to know it.
His competitor emailed the next day. By then Andrew had the job sewn up.
Here's the rest of our communication:
Gloriously – delightfully – short.
Many transactions are not like this
As I type, I have:
an insurance salesperson who seems to have changed her mind about selling me insurance. I've emailed twice and haven't heard back
a therapist for my daughter who I texted 4 times and phoned once before I got an appointment time
an appliance repair shop who I've phoned 3 times for an update (the repairer promises to call me back and never gets round to it).
It amazes me how hard people make it to do business!
Andrew made it easy for me
Notice what there wasn't with Andrew.
No delay in replying
No phone tag
No five emails to arrange pick-up and drop-off times
No excessive formality
And not a single wasted word.
This brings me to the tip...
People want short messages sent quickly
They really really really want short, timely messages.
But the minute we start to write, short disappears – we try to be polite, show we know what we're doing, and answer every possible question in advance.
At that point, we overthink it, get frazzled, and decide we'll come back to it later. When we finally send the message, it's not timely any more.
This week, try being like Andrew. Reply quickly and don't waste a word.
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