At my shop, we had a situation where we needed an answer from a client. It was the only way for us to know how to proceed with a situation. After multiple attempts at emailing and trying to contact the customer by phone, we had to figure out what to do. Then it hit me. Why not craft an email where “no response” is defined as a response? I’ll explain.
I started off the email kindly mentioning that we reached out a few times and hadn’t heard back. I wrote that on a specific date, we will be proceeding a certain way which we felt was in their best interest. We then wrote, “If you’d like us to proceed a different way, please respond by this date and we are happy to discuss other options.” Within minutes, we received a response. Sometimes it’s best for all parties to figure out how to make things happen when things are stuck. In the end, everyone was happy and on the same page.