Lay My Hat

Hi everyone,

Tonight I have received an email from a consumer who had sent a number of enquiries on Saturday for apartments in NY, and has not had one response yet.

She was having a rant.

I wondered how many of you 1) respond to enquiries even though your booked (not many people look at calendars when enquirying on bulk I don't think) and 2) how long do you take to respond to enquiries in general.

Just wondered what the general consensus was

Cheers

Darren

(1) Except for our fans from Ivory Coast and Nigeria we always respond, if only to give them the opt-out of a future newsletter.

(2) 15 - 30 mins on average, 0700 - 2355 UK time.*

MG
*yes, yes, I know

MG

Do you sleep? Thanks for the info.

We aim to respond by email within 12 hours whether or not the dates are available or not and follow up with a phone call if a telephone number is provided.

However we are astounded (should we be?) at the number of enquiries where we respond in good faith and receive no response back from either the email or the phone call.

Do people have some perverse reason for asking a question only to ignore the answer?

Do people have some perverse reason for asking a question only to ignore the answer?

I've wondered about that. Do you think it's because they're sending off a couple of dozen enquiries, on average, and just can't respond to each one, perhaps writing to the next dozen on their hit-list?

MG

I usually respond within 5 minutes to an hour.

With regard to the other question am sulking about that right now ! Had an enquiry Thursday evening, responded quickly, lady phoned me Friday morning wanting the 'next Friday/sat/sun'. Friendly chat, followed up with e-mail, she responded straight away with 'Thank you so much for your help, need to chat to hub, will get back to you asap'........bloody nada I e-mailed her Monday asking if she was still interested given the short time frame involved, not even the courtesy of a reply ! Every cloud has a silver lining, another enquiry yesterday for next week, booked straight away, keys going out tomorrow and yes I sooo wanted to e-mail the other one to say thanks so much for letting me know (not) & it's too late the week is gone now but I'm used to it now so resisted.

I respond to all...as soon as possible...usually within the hour and always within a day - even when I'm booked up.

Very much the same as MG - respond to every enquiry that isn't an obvious scam, with 5-10 minutes usually unless in the middle of the night.

I don't expect people to respond to my responses just to say they don't want to book. I make it clear that in order to book, they need to complete our booking form and make/arrange payment. Until they do that, I don't take their expressions of interest as being a booking. Better for my blood pressure that way.

When I am trying to book accommodation, I don't go back to everyone who has responded to my enquiries to say I am not going to book: I ask questions, they reply.

I always respond quickly as well.
Same as MG, but my hours are generally 5am-9-30pm [MGs on the night shift ]
I also respond to them telling me theyve made other arrangements thanking them for letting me know.
Its only polite and can pay dividends.
Ive had 2 bookings this year who enquired last year and for various reasons couldnt proceed[or I was booked]......but said they remembered how helpful I was.........and came back this year.
It is frustrating when youre in a position such as Partys, when they have said they will let you know, and dont bother...politeness isnt just a one way street.

Take Carexxxxxxxx

Thanks for your responses everyone.

Interesting.

I think the reason why most consumers do not reply back is that they probably enquire about a large number of properties and get overwhelmed with emails.

Even so, if they expect a quick response they should do the same themselves.

I often get thanked for a quick response, even if this is within a few hours (if I'm teaching I can't respond as quickly as within 10 minutes).
Which leads me to think that a lot of people don't even respond the same day. I go to bed at 10.30pm latest, which means I often miss UK enquiries that same evening, but I always reply first thing in the morning.

I respond immedietely if in working hours and within 5 mins upto 10am (then next morning reply).
It takes about 10 minutes.
I state on my webpage that I reply within 12 hours to all emails.

Do people have some perverse reason for asking a question only to ignore the answer?

One of lifes mysteries ...however I recieved a booking the other week for next year. No questions, no faffing about. SImple. I thought 'how odd!'.
On monday I was going through all my enquires I got last year in August - October that didn't convert...and there was a long email to this client answering all sorts of things. I didn't get an answer and probably was p'ed off about it at the time..........roll forward 12 months and she booked!

Mouse
x

On monday I was going through all my enquires I got last year in August - October that didn't convert...and there was a long email to this client answering all sorts of things. I didn't get an answer and probably was p'ed off about it at the time..........roll forward 12 months and she booked!

Good for you Mouse as I said Ive had similar..... so you just never know do you?
and what does it cost to be polite/helpful

Mouse wrote: I state on my webpage that I reply within 12 hours to all emails.

Crikey, that's very commendable, but very brave, too, Mousie!

Have you ever had anyone complain about a response sent, say, 14 hours after enquiry? Or are you still 100% on target with your replies?

I'm thinking of myself at our local supermarket, where they unwisely claim to limit the checkout wait to 10 minutes - they get treated to my best tut-tut if I'm kept waiting for 12 minutes

Seriously, though, it's nice to see that kind of promise on a website. At least enquirers know they can expect a (very) prompt reply, and it may encourage them to call you if they don't get a response (due to email going adrift, for example).

we also reply within the day (depends on whether I'm doing my `real` job or not! But, we subscribed to readnotify to check emails and it shows that a fair number of replies don't get opened which suggests that they have gone to the spam filter. So now, I always send a short follow up email a day later if I haven't heard to say check your spam and if you have decided to book elsewhere it would be really helpful to have feedback as to what influenced their decision - for some reason these are more likely to get through.

I don't know if it is the words `enquiry` or what which seems to affect people's spam filters (or is it just that having a readnotify tag means they don't get through which then makes me justify the £25 I've paid to readnotify as it shows non read - if you see what I mean!).

Anyhow, a surprising number of people do respond to say why - usually it is that they can't get the group of people to coordinate diaries, or the location is too far from a particular place etc. but they all ask to be kept on our mailing list which is helpful for future marketing.