When a client's form, brief or order arrives with a gap, write back the same day, name the exact missing item, say why you need it, and offer a default you will use if they do not answer by a stated date. A question the client can answer in five seconds gets answered. "Some details are missing" does not. Below are three templates (a soft one for a single gap, a firm one for several, and one with a deadline and a consequence), plus how to sort a gap before you write, which defaults are safe to use, and when to phone.
This page is about answers and decisions: a name spelled two ways, a size, a choice between options, an approval, a date. If what is missing is a file, a statement or a signed form, that is a different problem with a different fix, covered in the document request email to a client.
Why information goes missing
Clients leave gaps for ordinary reasons. The form field was optional and they skipped it. They did not know the answer and did not want to look foolish. They thought you already had it from an earlier conversation. Or they meant to come back to it. None of these is carelessness, so write the way a colleague would: one thing is needed, here is the question, and here is how the work keeps moving.
It also helps to stop gaps at the source. A good intake form marks required fields and says why each is asked; the client intake form guide shows how. But gaps will still arrive, and the email below is for when they do.
Before you write: sort the gap
Spend a minute sorting what is missing into three kinds, because each one gets a different treatment.
- Blocking. You cannot start or continue without it. The exact shipping address, which of two designs, the legal name for a contract.
- Assumable. You could make a sensible guess, and the client can correct it later. A font size, which color of two similar blues, the time of day for a delivery.
- Optional. Nice to have, not needed now. Do not chase these. Leave them out of the email so the real question does not drown.
Only blocking gaps get a deadline. Assumable gaps get a default. The mix of the two is what makes the email short.
The one-question rule
Compare two versions of the same request. "We still need some details for your order" gives the client a task of unknown size. "What name should go on the plaque: Hartley & Sons or Hartley and Sons?" gives them a task that takes five seconds. Whenever you can, turn the gap into a multiple-choice question, a yes or no, or a fill-in-the-blank with an example. The client's effort drops, and so does the time you spend waiting.
Template 1: the soft one, for a single gap
Subject: Quick question on your order: plaque wording
Hi Dana, thanks for placing the order. One thing before I set up your proof: should the plaque read "Hartley & Sons" or "Hartley and Sons"? Reply with the one you want and the proof comes to you tomorrow morning. If I do not hear by then, I will set the proof with the version on your letterhead, "Hartley & Sons." Nothing is engraved until you approve it.
Rosa
Why it works: the subject names the topic, so the client knows what is needed before opening the message. The default, taken from a document the client already gave you, shows you are not stalling. And because nothing is engraved before the proof is approved, a wrong guess costs nothing. Keep emails like this under 80 words.
Template 2: the firm one, for several gaps
Number the items, keep each to a line, and put the default next to each so the client can simply reply "fine" to the ones they do not care about.
Subject: 4 quick items to finish your brochure design (reply with numbers)
Hi Gordon, the layout is nearly done. To finish, I need four small answers. Where I have a default, I will use it unless you say otherwise.
1. Print quantity: 500 or 1,000? (Needed to confirm the price.)
2. Phone number to print: the 555-0142 line or the 555-0177 line? (Needed, no default.)
3. Cover photo: the storefront shot or the team shot? (Default: storefront.)
4. Paper finish: matte or gloss? (Default: matte.)You can reply with just the numbers, for example "1: 500, 2: 0142, 3 and 4 fine." If I have items 1 and 2 by Thursday at noon, proofs go out Friday.
Rosa
Why it works: the client can answer in one line. The email separates "needed" from "default," so it is clear what is blocking. And it ties the date to the answer: "by Thursday at noon, proofs go out Friday."
Template 3: with a deadline and a consequence
Use this when you have already asked once, or when the delay will hit a date you have promised to someone else. It stays kind and it is specific about what happens next.
Subject: Final guest count needed by Friday, Nov 13 at 5 pm
Hi Teresa, I asked on Monday for the final guest count for your November 21 event and have not received it yet. The venue needs the number by Friday, November 13 at 5 pm, and after that it will not accept changes. If the count reaches me by then, everything stays as planned. If it does not, I will submit our last estimate of 80, which means you would pay for 80 guests even if fewer come.
If you are still waiting on RSVPs, send me a range ("between 70 and 85") and I will submit the top of it. I am free tomorrow morning if it would help to talk it through.
Rosa
Why it works: the consequence belongs to the venue's rule, not to you, so it reads as information. The range option helps a client who really does not know. The offer of a call at the end shows it is not an ultimatum. Your consequence has to be real. If you will not actually do what the email says, do not write it. Clients learn quickly which deadlines are firm.
A related pattern comes up when the client's silence, not the gap itself, is the problem. In that case the sequence in email to a client who is not responding fits better, and the checking in email to a client covers the gentle end.
Subject lines a client can answer from the inbox
- Quick question on your order: plaque wording
- 4 quick items to finish your brochure (reply with numbers)
- One answer needed by Thursday noon to keep your Friday proofs
- Final guest count needed by Friday, Nov 13 at 5 pm
- Which version should I use? A or B
Put the deadline in the subject only when there is a real one. A client who sees a deadline on every email stops noticing the one that matters.
Good defaults, and bad ones
A default is a promise that you will take a particular action, so choose carefully. A good default is reversible, cheap to change, based on something the client already told you, and shown to the client before it becomes permanent (a proof, a preview, a photo). A bad default is anything irreversible or expensive: a legal name, an amount of money, a quantity you have to pay for, a delivery address. For those, you wait, and your email says that you are waiting and what the wait costs. The exception is an outside deadline you do not control, like the venue's cutoff in Template 3. Then the email names exactly what you will submit and what it will cost the client, so the choice is still theirs.
Write the default into the thread so you have a record. If a client later says "I never agreed to that font," you can point to the email that said "I will use Garamond unless you say otherwise." For anything that touches price or scope, keep a written trail; the scope of work template shows what to put in the agreement so that guessing is rarely needed.
When a two-minute call is faster
- The gap blocks the whole job and the date is within 48 hours. Call first, email the recap.
- The client has been asked twice by email. A third email is rarely read. A two-minute call usually resolves it, and the client often says "oh, I thought I had sent that."
- The answer involves money, safety or a legal name. Say it aloud and confirm in writing.
- You suspect the client does not understand the question. Hearing the hesitation is worth more than another message.
After the call, send three lines: what you asked, what they decided, what happens next. If the missing information keeps coming up with the same client, it may be time to read how to handle a difficult client.
Rocketship follows the same no-guessing rule when it writes to new buyers for you: before the first email it reads each buyer's own website, and it never invents facts about them. It finds the people, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up and books the meeting on your calendar, and the clients you win sit in one CRM and pipeline. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.