Why People Don’t Read Your Emails and How To Fix It

Has this ever happened to you?

You sit down at your computer and start typing out a carefully crafted email. You include all of the details necessary for a decision to be made.

You complete it, read it again for typos, and hit the send key.

You’re all proud of yourself knowing you captured all of the information necessary for a decision to be made. You carefully detailed the next steps you want the recipient to take.

A few minutes later, your phone rings. The recipient said they just received your email and wants to know the answer to a question.

It’s a question you answered in the email.

Your inside voice (you know, the one in your head) starts to scream, “READ THE EMAIL!” You hesitate knowing if you respond right away, your answer will come out snippy.

You take a deep breath, answer the question, and point out where in the email where you answered that question.

The caller quickly states they didn’t see that and thanks you. You both hang up.

It’s easy to get frustrated and point the finger as someone else’s lack of discipline to read the emails. Here’s some insight: not everyone is wired to take in a lot of information.

Know your audience.

If you’re writing to someone who wants their information in bullet points and you give a dissertation, be prepared to be disappointed. They won’t ever read your email.

Shorten your emails. Create 3-5 key bulleted statements of just the salient points.

Try it, and see what happens.