Are you responding to prospective customers' requests for information VERY promptly?

Why would a company invite customers and prospective customers to e-mail them for more information, and then not respond? What does this lack of responsiveness tell the (prospective) customers about the service the company provides?

Recently I had two instances of companies not responding to my e-mails. In one case, a web-based company was referred to me by a third party. When the third party heard I had not gotten an answer to my query, she then told me the web-based company was "overwhelmed" right now. A simple auto-responder would have told me the query had at least been received, and when I could expect to hear from the company. In the case of the second company, it has not responded to repeated requests for information, so it is about to lose my business.

If your company is trying to gain new customers or at least not lose the current ones, it MUST respond within 24 hours to web-based requests for information. Otherwise, you give a very negative impression of your services or products.

If you have had especially great or poor experiences with companies responding your requests for information, please tell us!