This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 591.
Couldn't reach someone?
How to say it in English.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Doing great, Michelle.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thanks.
Lindsay, are there any business contacts you have who you have a hard time reaching?
You want to get in touch with them and they don't respond?
Yeah, there are people.
Yeah, for sure that I email and sometimes it just takes like weeks to hear back from them because they're so busy.
Or maybe they're chaotic or they don't have good inbox management or something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it can happen.
So that's what we're talking about today.
We're going to talk about what to say in business when you try to contact someone but they're not there.
I mean...
And why is this important, Lindsay, at work?
It's super important for connection because you have to give updates in business, right?
Especially the person you need to reach is needed for something else to move to the next step, meaning they're a bottleneck right.
Bottleneck, very dangerous.
We try to avoid bottlenecks in business as much as we can, so people can be free to get their work done, not reliant on someone else.
Yes.
Oh, yeah, that's no fun.
So that's what we're going to talk about today.
So let's get into it.
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Let's give some examples of the exact phrasing that we need, right?
Let's just be really straightforward today.
Give it to our listeners exactly what they would need.
So couldn't or wasn't able to get in touch with, right?
This is the most straightforward way to say it.
So i tried to reach her yesterday, but i couldn't get in touch with her.
Yeah, or i tried all morning but i wasn't able to get in touch with bob about that bill.
Yeah, exactly.
So um yeah, it's a good way.
You know, maybe maybe somebody, maybe your boss, asks you for an update.
Um, you need to use these.
So then there's also to say that you couldn't reach someone.
So would you say this is more sounds like you're on the phone?
Yeah, I do.
I think this would not be that you tried to go to their office in person and they weren't there.
This would be really on the phone.
What about email?
No, not so much email, Michelle.
I think this is more about the phone.
So yeah, you couldn't reach them.
I last tried calling their secretary two hours ago, but I couldn't reach her.
Or have you heard back from marketing?
I couldn't reach them.
Yeah, so you picked up the phone.
You didn't get a response from...
Not so much Slack, not so much email, more so... Ring, ring.
No one answers.
Oh, yes.
Exactly.
And then one more here is someone didn't pick up or didn't write back or didn't answer.
So pick up the phone, write back an email or answer.
Yeah, it really could be either even a text message.
Yeah.
So, for example, it's been frustrating because I contacted them again this morning but they still didn't pick up.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Or I emailed her but she didn't write back.
Yeah, I mean, this can be really frustrating.
I mean, Lindsay, what is, I mean, honestly, what is a reason that you wouldn't get back to someone?
Are you guilty of this?
Do you have a way to manage it?
Yeah, I've gotten a little bit worse at this over the years, I think.
I thought you were going to say better.
As we started to do more and more.
It's kind of like overwhelm or just not quite having an answer in that moment or saying this is a big question.
I have to deal with this later.
But then later becomes two weeks later, and then you realize like you – I always mark as unread when I need to get back to someone in my inbox.
It's my strategy.
Not the best strategy, but it's what I do.
And that's how that would happen.
It's like I can't answer this right now.
I want to.
I will.
Yeah.
But socially that can happen too, right, Michelle?
Oh.
You mentioned that before.
Yeah, yeah.
Socially this is my... Yeah.
This is hard for me, you know?
Yeah.
I do agree.
I mean, a lot of times it's about you don't have the answer and then you're...
But it feels so good when it's over, right?
Because then you kind of hang on to that.
You push through, you do it, yeah.
Yeah, and it feels good to just cross that off your list.
Okay, I answered, whatever it is.
So either you don't have an answer or...
Yeah, you I would say that's definitely a big reason for it.
Or you just get busy.
And I think that the easy to answer things are ones that people respond to right away.
Or in the work context, if not only you don't have the answer, but to respond requires actually working on something.
Like going in, Looking at a calendar, looking at, Or even more than that, like you know, they have specific questions and you have to actually dig into the task.
And if you have a lot of other things you're managing...
It's hard to dig into that task and then have the answer to respond.
So there's a lot there.
I totally understand why people wait to respond.
It's just overwhelmed.
You know, there's not enough time in the day to do the task and respond.
Yeah.
With the correct answer.
Yeah.
But can it hurt our business relationship?
Of course.
Because then you also feel kind of guilty.
So then you ride with the conscious, your conscience has this like, oh, I have to get back to them.
What are they thinking?
Right.
Are they thinking I don't care about this project?
Oh, gosh.
It's a mind trip, Michelle.
It's uncomfortable.
So we're going to talk more about this after we get back.
Okay.
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All right.
So another thing we might say is it went straight to voicemail.
And we see this in our social lives as well as our business lives.
What is the difference between it went to voicemail and it went straight to voicemail?
Ah, that's interesting.
So when you say it went to voicemail, it usually means that it rang, you know it did ring and then it went to voicemail.
When you say straight to voicemail, let me know if you agree, Lindsay.
It's like you call, there's maybe one ring and then it goes straight to voicemail, leading you to believe right, maybe the person is on the train.
They don't have signal.
They, you know, there's some reason why it went straight to voicemail.
I guess they could just be hitting ignore.
Ignore.
Sure.
Yeah.
It just to me when you say straight, it like hammers home the idea that they're even less available.
Like they don't want to take your call or they really can't take your call.
I think.
Yeah.
And it might not be that.
I mean, it really might be that they don't have signal.
Right.
But we don't know.
We don't know.
But definitely, it went to voicemail sounds different than adding the straight, don't you think?
It does.
What we don't know, what the human mind does is it fills the gaps.
It fills in the gaps with the answers that... it thinks are true, right?
Yeah.
It's what kind of makes up stories.
That's what we do.
Oh, yeah, of course.
Yeah.
So well, like this example, there must be something wrong with her phone, because my call went straight to voicemail.
One person might say there's something wrong with her phone.
Another person might say, oh, she doesn't want to talk to me.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It just depends on your personality and the relationship.
I just tried her again, but it went to voicemail.
And this is interesting.
I tried her again.
Yeah, what are we saying?
To try someone important to know, you try someone, it means you're trying to get in touch with them, usually by phone, right?
Yeah yeah, exactly.
Or you might kind of take it from a different angle, just saying I'm still waiting on a response.
I'm still waiting on his, her, their response.
So we don't know what you did to contact them, but this is what you're doing.
They didn't respond to whatever medium you use.
Yeah.
I last reached out two days ago, but I'm still waiting on a response.
Or we need to decide soon, but we're still waiting on their response.
A little bit of a bottleneck there.
When do you think Michelle becomes unprofessional that you don't hear back from someone?
Is there like a blanket rule for... how quickly you should get back to someone.
I do find often on Friday afternoons a lot of emails come in where people are like oh, I got to get all these emails answered.
I sometimes feel on Fridays, okay, that email on Tuesday came in.
I ignored it.
I got to get back before I leave the office.
But what do you think?
Is there a time...
I mean, I think that it's different for every situation.
I mean, how urgent is this?
How well do you know the person?
And is it creating a bottleneck?
You know, things like that.
However, I would say, like a general rule would probably be 24 hours or, if it's a Friday, you know sometime on Monday.
What do you think?
Yeah, 24 hours.
I think it depends on so many factors.
How urgent is the response?
You'll know and that person will know.
24 hours, maybe up to a couple of business days, potentially.
It just depends.
Is there a bottleneck is really the most important question.
Is this person being prevented from taking their next step by your not responding?
That's the most important question.
Yeah.
If they're not, then maybe you can get away with two to three business days, right?
Exactly.
How urgent is it?
Yeah, really.
There's so much that can go into that.
Should we do a role play?
Let's do it, Michelle.
So here you are, my supervisor.
Or I am your supervisor and you are asking – oh, sorry.
I'm asking you for updates on people you've tried to contact, right?
I had a hard time with that.
Sorry.
Here we go.
It's okay.
It's not your fault.
It's not your fault.
Okay.
So have you spoken to the Waynes yet?
Hmm.
They've been tricky to get in touch with.
I last reached out yesterday, but they didn't write back.
That's really frustrating.
And what about Casey?
Just tried her and I went straight to voicemail.
So she may still be on the train.
I'm going to try her again after lunch.
Sounds good.
Did you get an answer from the finance team?
No, I'm still waiting on their response.
They take forever to answer their emails.
Well, that's not good.
I'm going to have to talk to them.
I tried yesterday, but couldn't reach them.
Yeah, it's been a challenge.
Yeah.
And, by the way, it should go without saying, I think we were assuming that these emails we were just talking about are kind of either internal or intra company, like between companies.
But if it's a, if it's a customer like, if it's a client or a customer like yeah, The fastest way to lose a client or to gain a client that wants to rehire you is to get back to them quickly or ignore them.
On the flip side right,
So pay special attention if it's a client, obviously, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
Very important.
You don't want to lose them.
So you said, so have you spoken to the Waynes yet?
And I said, they've been tricky to get in touch with.
I last reached out yesterday, but they didn't write back.
And then I said, oh, frustrating.
What about Casey?
And then I said, I just tried her and it went straight to voicemail.
So she may still be on the train.
So I made up a little story.
I mean, I probably know she's on the train and, you know, I sound pretty confident.
And then you said, did you ever get an answer from the finance team?
Yep.
And then you said, no, I'm still waiting to hear on their responses.
Right?
And then I said, that's not good.
I'm going to have to talk to them.
I tried yesterday, but couldn't reach them.
So I'm going to ask them to get back faster.
They're getting a reputation.
Yeah, that's not good.
That's not good.
You don't want to get that reputation.
No.
You want to convey a sense of urgency most of the time at work, right?
Yes, for sure.
So guys, if you haven't already, head on over to episode 574.
That was Given the Circumstances.
We think you should listen today.
Good.
And the takeaway here is, you know, who are you writing to?
Who are you responding back to?
Clients?
Is it coworkers?
Is it another company that you're just kind of thinking about, a collaboration or something, and it's not urgent?
Always have that in mind, right?
That's so important yeah yeah, this is kind of a little bit.
There's kind of a little bit of an art to this.
Um yes, and you know okay, this one can wait, this one can you know?
Um, so you know, we just have to be aware of these things.
Yeah, we're constantly navigating our inbox and prioritizing it in our mind.
Whether we're doing it in different folders or just in our minds, we're doing it.
We're doing it for sure.
Exactly.
All right.
Okay, Michelle, you have a good rest of your day.
All right.
You too, Lindsay.
Bye.
Bye.
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