Quick tip I learned the hard way from a customer-facing role: when someone messages you (especially on Slack), let them know you’ve seen it within 24 hours. You don’t need the answer yet—just a simple “got it, I’ll get back to you.”

When I started this job, I came in with a product mindset. My plan was: take all the inbound requests, batch them, work through them by priority, then reply with full answers. In my head, that was efficient. In reality, it made me look unresponsive. Internally it looked like I was ignoring people. Externally it felt like nothing was happening—even when I was actively working on it.

There’s something to the psychology here. Acknowledge → anxiety drops. People just want to know they’ve been seen and help is on the way.

I saw this play out with a large enterprise account that hadn’t gotten much attention before I inherited it. For a couple of months I made a point to respond to every request, follow up, and actually close the loop. Trust built—like, for real. When I finally went on-site for training, people acted like they already knew me. Multiple folks mentioned how responsive I’d been compared to before. That made everything else easier. They were more open, more collaborative, and it cleared the path for us to help them with their tech stack. The door opened simply because I kept acknowledging and following through.

The reality is we can’t respond with full answers right away every time. We still need to batch the real work so we’re not working 14-hour days. What’s worked for me is a middle path:

• Acknowledge quickly. “Seen—getting back to you by tomorrow.”
• Set a simple expectation. If it’ll take a few days, say so.
• Nudge if it’s delayed. “Haven’t forgotten—update coming Thursday.”
• Close the loop. Don’t leave the thread hanging.

Acknowledge early, then do the work when you’ve batched enough to focus. Y

ou can be responsive without being constantly interrupted.