E-mail messaging now exceeds telephone traffic and is the dominant form of business communication.
Don’t you wish that every person who received a new e-mail account had to agree to follow certain rules to use it? There are certain standards expected for e-mail use and below are just a few to keep in mind when communicating with fellow business contacts.
DO’s:
- Make sure your e-mail includes a courteous greeting and closing.
- Address your contact with the appropriate level of formality.
- Just because someone doesn’t ask for a response doesn’t mean you ignore them.
- Always acknowledge emails from those you know in a timely manner.
- Responding promptly doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to have answers right away.
- Always extend the offering to “hop on a call” or “feel free to pass along any additional questions.”
- Clients are busy. Prioritize the most important points to the top of e-mails.
- Buried points are more likely to be missed.
- Keep messages brief and to the point.
- Just because your writing is grammatically correct, does not mean that it has to be long.
- Rare use of “my” or “I.” Make sure your client understands there is a team supporting their business not just an individual.
- “Here are our recommendations” vs. “Here are my recommendations”
- “Attached please find the projections that we put together” vs “I put together”
- Spell check!!!
DON’T’s:
- Don’t engage in rounds of e-mails when a quick phone call could resolve the question.
- Don’t introduce a new topic in the middle of an e-mail thread. If you’re changing the subject, create a new message with a different subject line.
- If your e-mail is emotionally charged (which it SHOULD NOT be), walk away from the computer and wait to reply.
- Refrain from using multiple font colors in one e-mail.
- Don’t inject your opinion. Phrases like “I think…” or “In my opinion…” should be avoided.
- Be confident in your recommendation – @ Bruce Campbell.
- Words to omit:
- Hey, Like, “as mentioned” or “as we discussed.”
- Refrain from using “as I mentioned or as I said before…” – this is straight-up condescending.
- Monitor …. The …. use …. Of …. Ellipses …., because let’s face it – they are annoying …..
