The Enquiry That Arrives on the Twenty-Third

Late demand is real demand

The enquiry arriving days before Christmas is from somebody who genuinely needs something and has left it late.

Most businesses either ignore it, because it cannot be fulfilled, or reply vaguely in the hope of finding a way.

Both produce the same outcome: a person who needed something, got no useful answer, and will remember that.

The opportunity here is not the sale, which is frequently impossible; it is being the business that answered properly when nobody else did.

Three answers worth having ready

• Yes, if a condition is met.
• No, but here is the nearest thing.
• No, and here is who can.

The third is the one almost nobody offers and the one people remember longest. Sending somebody to a competitor who can help costs you a sale you were never going to make and buys something more durable.

Speed matters more than the answer

Which is the whole of the difference on these.

Somebody enquiring on the twenty-third is working through options and will act on the first clear reply.

A no within an hour lets them try something else while there is still time.

A maybe on the twenty-fourth has cost them the day they had left.

So the priority in the final week is not solving these; it is answering them fast, even where the answer is no.

Set aside twenty minutes twice a day for exactly this rather than dealing with them when convenient.

The yes-if answer

Which rescues more of these than people expect.

Collection today rather than delivery.

A different colour or size that is actually in stock.

A gift card delivered by email immediately, with the item to follow in January.

Expedited shipping at a stated additional cost, if it genuinely still works.

Each of those turns an impossible request into a possible one, and the customer decides rather than being told no.

Have all four of those options written down and close to hand before the final week begins.

Under pressure nobody invents them, and with a list anybody answering can offer them.

Under pressure nobody invents them, and with a list anybody can offer them.

A worked example

A shop received eleven enquiries in the final week that could not be fulfilled as asked.

They replied to all eleven within a few hours, offering a gift card, collection, or a recommendation elsewhere.

Four bought gift cards, two collected, and three were sent to another business.

Of the three sent elsewhere, two placed orders in the spring and mentioned the recommendation.

The two who received nothing useful were the two who had asked for something genuinely unavailable anywhere.

Eleven enquiries that looked like nothing produced six transactions and two future customers.

The previous year those messages had gone unanswered.

The gift card is the honest rescue

Which deserves a specific mention because it works.

Somebody buying a present with three days left has a problem: they need something to give, not necessarily the thing itself.

An emailed gift card, delivered immediately and printable, solves the actual problem.

Make sure it is genuinely available and genuinely instant, since a gift card that takes two days to arrive is no help at all.

Test yours in November rather than discovering on the twenty-third that it posts physically.

And say on the site that it arrives immediately, since customers assume otherwise.

Decline properly

Which is a skill worth having in every month.

Say plainly that it is not possible, say why in one line, and offer whatever alternative exists.

Do not apologise at length, which reads as though something went wrong rather than as a constraint that always existed.

Do not blame the customer for leaving it late, however tempting.

And do not leave the door ambiguously open, since a customer who thinks there is a chance will not look elsewhere.

A clear no delivered kindly is a genuinely good customer experience.

Capture them for later

Which is the part that pays off in February.

Somebody who wanted your product in December still wants it in January.

Offer to let them know when it is available, or simply note the enquiry and come back to them in the second week of January.

That follow-up converts remarkably well, because you are contacting somebody who already tried to buy.

Keep a short list of the late enquiries and work through it after the break, which takes about an hour.

It is comfortably the best January hour available to a small business.

Say what your last day actually is

Which prevents a share of these arriving at all.

A prominent line saying the last day for orders, the last day you are answering messages, and when you reopen removes the enquiry from somebody who would otherwise ask hopefully.

That is not a lost sale, since it was never available, and it saves both of you a message at the busiest possible moment.

Put the reopening date beside it, because that turns a closed sign into a small piece of useful information rather than a dead end.

Update the site, the listing, and the automatic reply together on the same afternoon, since a customer checking one of the three and finding it silent will simply write anyway.

The counter-case

Capacity is real.

A business already at its limit cannot spend the final week answering enquiries it cannot fulfil, and shipping the orders it has taken matters more.

Saying nothing is still worse than a two-line no, which takes less time than reading the enquiry twice.

And some late requests are unreasonable, and declining without an alternative is a perfectly acceptable answer.

Answer within hours, have the yes-if options written down, offer a gift card, refer elsewhere where you can, and follow up in January.

What to do

1. Answer within hours.
2. Write the yes-if list in advance.
3. Check the gift card is instant.
4. Decline plainly, in one line.
5. Refer elsewhere where you can.
6. Note the enquiry.
7. Follow up in January.

Step five is the one almost nobody does and the one people remember, since sending somebody to a competitor who can help costs a sale that was never available and buys something that lasts.

The out-of-hours question is covered in answering at nine on a Sunday.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.