Message response rate

[DimitriaTees]

I have a very low score for my message response rate. The only non-spam message I didn't respond to was someone claiming to know my mother and ask after her well-being. Since my shop isn't affiliated with my mother and she couldn't confirm that she knew the person, I decided to delete it without answering. I was hesitant to mark it as spam since I didn't want to cause issues for someone if they were being sincere. How do I fix this? It feels very unfair. I have only gotten one actual message from a customer that was answered as soon as I woke up in the morning and it resulted in a sale so I don't think they minded waiting six hours. The rest of all messages received have been spam and this one single strange mail. But now I'm sitting at 20% message response rate. I just opened my shop in November.

[NanaLetha · Accepted solution]

You must reply to all messages or mark as spam.

[CamelusHandmade]

Not all messages. Just first messages in every thread that is started.

And if someone wrote to you, but their message is strange and you don't know what to do - just write "Can I help you?".

Example:
Customer: "Hi! Ubly ghykkky alasdfkjgh... ?"
You: "Can I help you?"

[PristinityJewelry · Accepted solution]

"...I didn't respond to was someone claiming to know my mother and ask after her well-being. ..."

But Etsy doesn't know this.  They don't read our emails.  It wouldn't be for Etsy to decide whether an email was business related or otherwise.

All "first inquiries" must be respomded to, or put in the spam folder.  It has been that way since Star Seller's inception.  And no, Etsy won't retrocatively "fix it", nor is it possible for a seller to.