Replying to a client

Use this whenever the task is to answer, draft or chase an email to a client.

Steps

1. Find the client and their project in 30-Customers and 70-Delivery. Quote their real dates and deliverables. Nothing from memory.
2. Answer the question they asked in the first two lines. Context comes after the answer, never before it.
3. If the answer is "not yet", give the date it will be, not the reason it is late.
4. If money, scope or a deadline is changing, stop and say so: that reply waits for the owner.

The shape

• Greeting with their first name.
• The answer, two lines at most.
• One short paragraph of context if it is needed.
• One next step, with a date, and who owns it.
• Sign-off: first name only, no title, no signature block.

Never

• "I hope this email finds you well", "just checking in", "as per my last email".
• Apologies for delays that were not ours.
• More than 120 words.