Quote Originally Posted by Colin
Take a local kiltmaker here for instance, he nows works in a shop without internet access, so after a full day for making kilts, he has to go home and review and respond to any inquiries. If any of those inquiries require something at the shop (ie do you have any of this tartan in?) that reply may take another day.

Judge companies by the level of service, not by how quickly they get back to you. They may not be busy for a reason.
As a businessman, if an informative response has to be delayed while I needed to gather info, I would send a short email to that effect. When I had the information that the customer desired I would supply it in a subsequent email. Otherwise, I figure that I could stand the chance of either losing a customer or giving him the impression that I am not very organized. It is fine to defend folks who offer a top notch service, and I am not stating that a person who fails to answer email or return phone calls in a timely fashion is a bad or even a lazy person. What I AM saying is that everything that a business does reflects on that business and provides the customer with an impression. It is obviously to the advantage of a business to make that impression a good one. You have to admit that a good customer experience always involves good communication whether that business is located across the street or on another continent. It admittedly takes effort, but good communication is important enough that the effort has to be made.

Mychael