Email will go the way of ticketing systems and have a status for each message so you (or the system) can keep following up with a delightful series of canned messages.
"Just circling back"
"Any ETA on this?"
"Checking in to see were we're up to"
The other end can then color the messages depending on what reminder number you're on.
Email is fundamentally different from ticketing systems in that the primary goal is communication, though email often serves as an ephemeral database also. With ticketing systems it’s the reverse, communication is incidental instead.
Addendum: It’s actually better, in my experience, to treat ticketing systems like communication tools instead of issue tracking databases. In fact one of the more common sources of contention is engineers coming from a documenting/databasing point of view, and other system users approaching it more like a web forum.
"Just circling back"
"Any ETA on this?"
"Checking in to see were we're up to"
The other end can then color the messages depending on what reminder number you're on.