Estimated reading time: 45 seconds

“Never assume anything” Heard that before? Me too…at least a million times.

Yes, it’s a cliché, but it always ring true!

Some recent examples:

A chiropractor contacted me a few months ago for help with her insurance and estate planning.

She decided to call after finding us on the internet where she downloaded our free 3 part Estate Planning Toolkit.

(We have subsequently added a 4^th element - a Business Owners Planning Guide – all are available free here).

Our first meeting was great; we got along really well and identified genuine insurance needs.

We also uncovered a bunch of “housekeeping” needs requiring attention like updating wills, powers of attorney, etc.

The next week I followed up with her via email with recommendations.

I didn’t hear back so I sent her another note the following week.

Again, no reply.  I was beginning to take this personally.

I waited another week,  my assistant phoned her …reached voicemail…left a message.

She called back a week later and told me she was working with another insurance advisor.

Why, I asked …what happened?

She explained that she hadn’t receive any follow up emails from me, and therefore assumed I wasn’t interested in helping her, so she reached out to someone else. Hmmmm….

So what went wrong?

As it turns out, her email address was incorrect.  I missed a consonant in her last name.

A single letter in an email address, just one small letter in a long email address ruined a great opportunity to work together

"The devil is in the details" - heard that before too!

Want another example?

A friend and client of many years contacted me a month ago seeking pricing information about ELITE U.S. Healthcare™ for himself and his wife. I promptly sent him an email with all the details, but didn’t hear back.

A week later, still no reply, so I sent another note.

We finally spoke this week when I called to see how he was doing.

He told me he hadn’t received any of my emails, I assured him they were all sent.    He also wondered why I hadn’t been in touch and he had been taking it personally too!

We double checked and re-confirmed the email address was correct (at this point I was still smarting and well-educated from example one above).

All perfect, no glitches.

And then, eureka, he finally found my emails, all of them, safely resting in his junk folder because he had made some adjustments to his email system since we had last talked.

Yes, email is indispensable, it is great and technology is truly wonderful.

But NEVER assume things are always working in your favour.

I will no longer hesitate to follow up unanswered emails with phone calls, faxes, drum beats or smoke signals.

(assuming you got this)

Stay healthy.