OMG TBH FAWC LOL

How responsive are you when it comes to text messages or emails? Some of you may avoid texting or your email inbox at all costs, but for those of you that engage to some extent, what kind of response habits have you adopted?

I don’t necessarily know the correct text message or email response etiquette, but I can tell you my own perception and how I have seen it affect my own personal and business life. I suppose our focus will be on the business side of digital responsiveness because that may have the most dangerous implications, but it was various experiences in my personal life that really got me thinking on the topic.

First, let me start off by stating the obvious:

When it comes to texting or emailing in a business setting, stay away from the net lingo or abbreviations.

A few are decoded below:

OMG – Oh My Gosh
TBH – To Be Honest
FAWC – For Anyone Who Cares
LOL – Laughing Out Loud

For a complete list of virtually any text/email acronym alive, click here.

Aside from the fact that these responses are not very professional, the real problem lies in communication. In your personal life, you may be streamlining communication with these abbreviations, especially to persons that understand them, but in a professional setting, you may be unaware of what lingo the person you’re communicating with has knowledge of. You may be confusing them or just complicating the communication process.

If someone texts you, calls you, or emails you, respond in a timely fashion. There’s nothing worse than sending a personal text to someone only to get a Words With Friends invite four hours later without any kind of response to your previous message. How long does it take to respond to a text? And when this happens to me, I realize that the person has clearly received my text message and has chosen to ignore it altogether. That doesn’t send a very friendly message…or more literally, this doesn’t send any kind of message at all.

Now apply this idea to a business setting. No one wants to do business with someone who doesn’t respond to emails, phone calls, or text messages in a timely manner. Even worse, if a client or business partner catches you blatantly ignoring their emails, texts, or phone calls (especially by way of Words With Friends invites), you’ll likely lose the business altogether. If this happened to me as a client, I would take it as “you clearly do not value me as a client” and I would seek to find someone else.

More specifically, it’s not even that people won’t want to do business with you if you don’t return texts, emails, or phone calls…it’s that people can’t do business with you. Without two-way communication or some kind of forward movement, deals will stay stagnant, projects are put on hold, and business itself will dissipate.

I am by no means saying you should clutch to your phone or computer and respond the split second anyone sends you message. That’s just bad time management. What I am saying, however, is that if you intend to run a business, make sure to communicate professionally, and that includes a timely response. Clients don’t have to choose you. There are plenty of other providers out there offering similar or the same things. Without a response, your clients will likely move on to the next, more responsive providers.

Even if you can’t give the most detailed response at the moment, make sure to send a quick email or text message letting them know they have been heard…then make sure to follow up within the next 24 hours.