I see you 👀
What is the power of acknowledgment in your digital workflow?
It takes 8 seconds.
“Received! Will review and get back to you shortly.”
Or 2 seconds. Press. Tap.
👍🏻
Or even a few more keystrokes to insert a snippet.
“Thank you for your ticket! We’re investigating and will reach out with next steps as soon as we can.”
Why do many of us find it inconvenient to acknowledge one another in our digital communication?
What might change in our interactions if we made the time for it? With our team? With our customers?
People want to be acknowledged
In a previous role, I helped build a piece of internal software that enabled our inside sales reps to respond to web inquiries with a phone call within 60 seconds of their submission. Our president was early to read this research and we made rapid response a reality. As it happens, customers loved it. It was an extremely satisfying and culturally defining project with real business impact.
But, I’m not just talking about sales leads. The value proposition for acknowledgment exists in more subtle interactions too.
One of four pillars in Atlassian’s team communication philosophy is “Show that you are paying attention.” This includes a statement on digital reactions. Within modern communication tools, every platform has some version of a reaction. These are fantastic for acknowledgement. It takes such little effort to double-tap a message or click an emoji to just let the sender know they’ve been seen.
“Saw it.” “I see you.” “Thanks for the effort.”
Acknowledgment makes them feel seen and heard, which is good. But here’s the enlightened self-interest: Acknowledgement also buys YOU time.
Clarity creates time to respond
I will speak for myself, any demand to respond quickly to others is annoying. I genuinely dislike the presumption on my time. But as I have learned to subdue that urge within service roles, I’ve learned that a good and honest acknowledgment will buy me the flexibility and control to follow up thoroughly at a time that works best for me.
“Got your message! There’s a lot of information here. Busy day, but I’ll review and respond soon with the attention this deserves.”
In my current capacity of managing IT service organizations, problems can be complex and take real time to triage and understand. I would prefer that my customers know we’re aware and doing that work on their behalf.
Acknowledge is the first step to every protocol.
When a error alert hits Slack, the on-call engineer is responsible to react so that everyone knows eyes are on the issue. No pressure to resolve it immediately, but you must acknowledge it.
When a customer support request hits Jira, an acknowledgment is expected within 15 minutes. Let them know the message was received and triage is underway.
We are rarely able to fully respond right away. Time is often necessary to respond and resolve what is being asked.
With acknowledgement, the sender can be at peace with the time you’re taking to respond to their need. Without acknowledgment, they will be left wondering.
When stakes are low, this is unnecessary stress. When stakes are high, this can cause real damage to the relationship. Customers don’t like yelling into the void. How many of us like to be left on read for hours or days? A simple acknowledgement would go a long way.
One final note: Acknowledgement must be backed by action, otherwise it will lose its integrity. If you promise to follow up, then follow up.
It’s all upside
Walk into a cafe and the barista is rushing to serve the queue of people hovering around the counter. How would you feel if they never say a word or look up until 10 minutes later? Would it feel easier to wait if they give you a smile and nod?
“Welcome! I’ll be with you shortly.”
No one likes a long line, but they like it far less when it’s invisible and no one is managing their expectations. For those of us who work online or communicate through our fingers and screens every day, everything is invisible unless we choose to call it out.
Acknowledgement is often so easy, and can have outsized benefit to both you and them. Consider making it a priority in your digital communication.