November 19, 2025

What if clients insist on communicating via email?

Fellow list member Rachael Cawley replied to my recent message about not using email for client communications to ask a follow-up question (shared with permission, edited lightly for clarity):

What if you have a client who doesn’t want to use Slack and just wants to use email?

Great question!

Let’s zoom way out...

Would you allow clients to randomly drop by your house unannounced to ask you a question or have an impromptu meeting?

No.

Why not?

Because you have a (perhaps unwritten) “no unexpected drop-ins at my house” client communication policy.

And if a client was violating this policy, you would take corrective measures.

And if the corrective measures didn’t work, you would fire the client.

Here’s the thing...

Clients who aren’t willing to comply with your communication policies aren’t ideal clients, so you should send them elsewhere.

But...

If you aren’t currently in a position to decline work, it’s probably because you are poorly positioned and aren’t getting a steady stream of qualified leads.

In this case, my recommendation would be to set up a new email address that ONLY receives client communications.

No promotions. No newsletters. No social media alerts.

ONLY. MESSAGES. FROM. CLIENTS.

This way, you can check your business inbox without fear of getting distracted and losing 45 minutes reading about Black Friday deals or whatever.

Thanks to Rachael for sending in this question!

Yours,

—J

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