Priority Inbox Fail
So the big news this morning is Google’s new “Priority Inbox” feature that will be rolling out to all of Gmail this week (Coverage here from TechCrunch amongst others).
If you’re in sales you may be thinking that this is a boon to you. Now you can be sure to never miss the important email from that one client you’re waiting to hear from!
If you had that thought, shame on you. If you need a tool like this to find your important emails then you’re treating your clients badly. Every client email is important. Every one of them deserves your attention. They are opportunities for you to be a salesman and to earn business.
Be proactive on email, not reactive. Reply to things as soon as you can after the come in. Clients aren’t going to wait forever for you to respond, they’ll shop around. Take action on actionable items in your email as quickly as is prudent. If you can’t do something on it right away, make a to-do item for it (in whatever format works for you). If you’ve read the email, and/or done whatever the email required, get it out of your inbox. Gmail already lets you do this by archiving it in a way that you can easily search for it later.
Beyond the fact that you shouldn’t be trusting Google to tell you which emails are important, if you are unable to answer the emails that come in from a client in a timely manner then you need to revamp your process.
Email isn’t going away or slowing down. Gone are the days of being able to check your email once a week to see who reached out to you by something other than your phone. Get your inbox habits in place and in order, don’t let Google do it for you.
