In the last post of this series, I walked you through the overview of how I mastered my email inbox so I could be a better communicator and have happier clients.
In this instalment, I want to walk you through more specifics: the nitty-gritty of how I use Right Inbox, my favourite Gmail add-on, to level-up my email game and never skip a beat with clients.
Once you have Right Inbox installed and set up, you’ll notice a few new buttons in your Gmail interface. The “Remind Me” button will be available at the top of a conversation thread, as seen here:
In the email composer, you’ll see a new row devoted to Right Inbox:
These buttons are the heart of the Right Inbox experience. Here are a few situations where you might use them.
Managing Expectations
If you’re keeping business hours, it’s important to adhere to them. Sure, you might take a half hour or so to respond to email on the weekend, or to work on a bug fix or two, but you don’t want to let clients get used to it!
In those circumstances, I depend on Right Inbox’s “Send Later” feature. For example, when I receive emails from a new lead on the weekend, I might write up a response (or use a pre-written response) and schedule it to send early Monday morning. Why not send it as soon as I write it? Simple: setting that boundary right away ensures that I can go off the grid for a weekend without my clients getting upset, because they know to expect it.
One especially nice feature in Right Inbox (vs. other Gmail delayed sending tools) is that your scheduled emails stay in your drafts folder, so you can easily edit or cancel them before they actually get sent.
Sales Follow-ups
During the lead nurturing phase of a project, I like to be as communicative as possible (heck, I try to be communicative even when a lead becomes a client). But it can be tricky to stay on top of a sales email chain, when there are projects to be built, other leads to work with etc. It doesn’t help that I’m incredibly forgetful either.
That’s when Right Inbox’s “Remind Me” feature comes in handy. Whenever I sent an email to a lead, I set a reminder immediately after to ensure I follow up if I haven’t heard back for a few days. Having those reminders is essential, because I archive most of my email, and if an email is out of sight it is almost certainly out of mind.
Right Inbox’s reminders feature is the thing that lets me keep my inbox completely clean, while making sure I don’t forget about essential follow-ups.
Your Ideas
What other circumstances might call for Right Inbox? Do you have a favourite Right Inbox competitor that you use? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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