Why are your emails not being answered?

You are looking for a job, you send out emails to employers, but no one answers them. Or you send a letter to a colleague, and for some reason he delays answering. Is this situation familiar?

Researchers from the University of Waterloo decided to approach the issue from a scientific point of view. They decomposed the problem into components and identified five main factors that influence a person’s decision to respond to a letter:

• the time or effort required to process email;
• sender’s identity;
• the number of recipients specified in the letter;
• user workload;
• the importance of a particular email.

Surprisingly, in the first place, people evaluate not the importance of the letter, but the importance of the person of the sender. If the email is sent by someone important in their professional and personal lives, a reply will be sent immediately.

The time it takes to process a letter is also an important factor. If the letter contains attachments, a lot of text and links, then it is more likely to be postponed until later. Therefore, if you want to receive answers, try to write concisely and do not send anything extra.

Another unexpected discovery is that people are more likely to ignore letters from senders who are close to them in status and views. This is due to the fact that people in their own circle are less interesting to the recipient. That is, a subordinate or boss is more likely to answer you than an equal colleague.

The chance of receiving a response is strongly influenced by the number of recipients of the letter. The more people you send the text, the less chance of a response. According to scientists, when a person sees several names in the recipient column, he loses the motivation to answer. He believes that someone else will give the answer. The problem is that everyone thinks so. In the toga, the letter remains unanswered. Conclusion: if you want to receive answers, send personalized emails. It’s a little longer, but much more effective.

The scientists plan to continue the study. Now they intend to find out what factors affect the chance that a user will return to a delayed email after some time.