For Clients and New or Potentials
Please read all of the information that is on my website and under each of the services that you request, EVEN if you have ordered a service from me in the past as conditions and terms can and occasionally do change. ;)
To start: The weekends are free for this girl! I will not be checking emails on Saturdays and Sundays. Family gets my attention on the weekends now. So though I love you guys, errr zip it and keep it quiet on the weekends. Actually, no you can email me on weekends, that's fine, but I will get your emails resuming on Mondays. :D
Which brings us to emails and communication BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER a service-This is important to all of you:
Please understand that I can not respond to every single email I get each day from my clients for various reasons.
1. If I replied to each on a daily basis with ALL of my clients and customers, there would NOT be enough time in the day to get work done; it pulls away from work getting done for your case and other clients work.
2. Many clients are using the email communication as if it were a text app (multiple 1 or 2 line sentences in an email as if in mid conversation that can easily be sent as one email once a day and expected reply from me in a day or few). I can not sit at my phone or my computer all day every day, as I have schedules to keep up with and this creates a dent to keeping my scheduled tasks from being completed on time.
3. This one is a doozy that most of you are realizing that I flat out ignore. Multiple emails such as what's described above OR resending (forwarding) the same email you wrote me just 3 hours prior or the day before, Not only clogs up my already filling email box along side new client consultations, ongoing client work, and other business emails and the needless multiple emails as mention above, it does not nor will it get a response faster and becomes distracting when organizing cutting into more time as I try to filter out unnecessary cluttered emails. Just don't do it, you guys, it creates confusion and frustration.
4. Please do not expect a response the same day and send me multiple emails if I am still available, etc. I state this on the website that it sometimes takes even up to a week to reply, unless something horribly wrong is happening with your case on my end, I will notify you of it, this is absolutely rare.
If you have read my site, and my blogs, and followed our consultations and so forth, then you know that answer already. Of course I am still working your case, of course I know you are on the other end, no I haven't forgotten about your candles and jars sitting on my altars. : )
The solution, and I really hate that it's come down to this, but some of my clients are having a difficult time understanding this so I am making the point here for them and any others that need to know how to communicate with me in emails:
Quite a bit of this is described not only ON my site but in a client acceptance email that I send to you after consultation of our first working together now, but here's some more details that need to be explained.
A. Please send me one email at a time that covers all of your questions as best as possible, even if this means jotting down your ideas and questions to follow up in an email with me for the day. I know there are times that anxiety and stress is overload for you and you need immediate response, however, I can not guarantee that I am going to be checking email at that time or for the rest of that day. I have multiple clients, a farm, and a family of three children. I also like the rest of you take my "me" days and weekends for just me, family, and working on my other projects. :) Normal human life. : )
I am not on call or tied to my computer and phone like most of the world today who live on phones, Facebook, and emails. I am directly a hands on girl, that's how I roll. :D
Also, there are days that I do not check email because the works are in progress and the schedule is full so I am not expecting to take on any additional clients for that week.
B. Please Do not forward ANY of your emails already sent to me the day of, the day before, etc. IF I have not responded to you within 4 days, then resend that email, most likely it went to the junk folder or is lost in 300 emails from that week that take DAYS to sort through sometimes. Sending multiple emails to me, or forwarding the same email that I might have seen already and not had the opportunity to sit and give your email the thoughtful undivided attention it deserves, will just create some confusion and clutter that can be avoided.
C. Reiterating: If I haven't replied to you that day or the next day, and you need to know if I am still available or where I went, if I am busy, etc. Don't just don't... LOL! You guys know it sometimes takes a few days for me to reply and well all that other stuff up there I have rambled on about! :D