It sounds painfully obvious. And maybe you already have canned email responses–especially if you are using automation. But looking at your processes and continuous communications is a good use of time as a solo service provider. It’s my Quadrant 2 activity of the day. Today is Day 1 of my 30-day Quadrant 2 Challenge to myself. The challenge? Spend at least 30 minutes a day on a Quadrant 2 activity.
What’s Quadrant 2 (aka Quadrant II)?
I’m a Stephen Covey fan and this activity falls right into Quadrant 2–working on what’s IMPORTANT but not URGENT. (Although next time you need to send an email that could be reused, it’s a great time to take this action.) If you’re not familiar with Covey’s 7 Habits, Hubspot has a great summary.
Developing Your Canned Email Responses
While there are many ways to implement using canned email responses (a subject for another post!), what’s most important is that you develop them. Here are the questions to answer for starters:
- What processes might be good candidates for standard emails? This is the brain dump. (e.g., networking follow up, initial proposal follow up, unresponsive prospect follow up, billing, etc.)
- Of these processes, which one is the most directly impactful to my bottom line, most time consuming, most annoying, and most active PLUS well-defined? (I chose unresponsive client follow up.)
- What is the process trigger for this canned email response to occur? (Status=Closure over 180
days. Don’t judge!) - What should the content for this message be? Write it! You may have variations on a theme, which is fine. No one likes to be templatized. All of my communications are customized. They simply start with a canned email response.
Let me know how it goes. And of course, join me on the 30-day Quadrant 2 Challenge using #30daysofQ2.