Totally template your emails.
Map every message so it’s ready to roll.

Repeating yourself gets pretty boring, pretty fast. But how many times a week do you send almost identical emails – accompanying quotes and invoices, chasing up responses, confirming appointments? A lot, right?

So what if you stopped typing out the same few sentences again and again – and turned all your regular messages into good-to-go templates? Drop in the right customer’s details, add a few specifics and bam! Job done. It might just be a game changer…

Emails don’t take long to write, but when you’re sending dozens every day, they soon add up. And the bigger the stack you’ve got to reply to, the more likely you are to put it off… and off… and off. Before you know it, you’re taking too long to get back to people, you’re rushing what you write and you’re not looking like the pro you know you are. Templates are the perfect fix.

By taking the time to write and save a really great template email for things like ‘here’s my quote’, ‘here’s my invoice’ or ‘confirming our appointment’, you’ll have a really polished message you can drop the right details into and send in about a minute – rather than the ten it might normally take.

Yes, it’s a small time saving, but multiply it by all the messages you write every day, and you’ll soon have time to fit in that extra job – or even knock off on time for once. You’ll also find it much easier to send messages quickly, even when you’re on the go.

Mapping every message

If templates sound like a good idea, how about taking it a step further? You could map out every email you send during the typical journey of a job, and get them all set up, ready to roll. Then you’d have a bank of messages to pick and choose from, whenever you need them.

It’s an investment of time up front – a couple of hours or so – that’ll save you time, day in, day out, again and again. Even better, it’ll seriously up your customer-service game. Why? Because you’ll be sending strong, un-rushed messages that arrive in people’s inboxes sooner. Which makes you look super organised, professional and generally great at your job. Win.

Like the idea of lining up all your likely emails? Ok, let’s take a look at a typical job journey and the kind of messages you might want to template. We’ve suggested a few for each stage, but everyone works differently, so think of this as a starting point and adapt it to suit the way you do your thing…

Early doors

You might send emails to…

• Thank people for getting in touch.
• Confirm an initial appointment.
• Accompany a quote.
• Follow up with customer testimonials.
• Provide more information on your business (like specialisms, how long you’ve been going, accreditations etc).
• Chase up a quote.

In the bag

You’ve won the work! Now you might want emails to…

• Thank people for choosing you.
• Tell people what to expect next.
• Confirm timings or start dates.
• Accompany an updated quote if the customer changes their mind about what they need.

On the job

Just because you’re on site, doing their job, doesn’t mean you won’t need to email your customer. In fact, sending them regular written updates helps keep everything crystal clear, manages everyone’s expectations and makes you look really organised.

You could template emails that…

• Confirm any changes you’ve agreed in person.
• Update your customer on what’s happening week by week.
• Tell customers what you’ll be doing next.

Done and dusted

Once you’re done with one job, you’ll probably be straight onto the next, so templated emails can make it easier to get things wrapped up and paid.

You could use them to…

• Confirm the job’s all done.
• Ask for sign off.
• Accompany an invoice.
• Chase up payment.
• Thank people for paying and choosing to work with you.

Do it your way

That’s just one example of a typical job journey – and it might not sit exactly with the way you work. But taking the time to think your jobs through from first call to final payment is an investment worth making. So grab a cuppa, work it through and figure out what it is you need.

Once you’ve made a list, it’s time to start writing. Your template doesn’t need to be anything fancy or techy – a simple Word file that you copy and drop the specifics into will do the trick.

On the other hand, if you’d like a bit more help, you’ll find a whole stack of ready-written templates in YourTradebase, plus a handy tool for writing, saving and using your own. There’s even a blog here on how to use them, step by step.

Whatever tools work for you, templates have the power to turn haphazard messages into a streamlined process – and make a big difference to your business. Give them a go – we’d love to hear how you get on.