We have thousands of sheets of our high-quality company letterhead and beautiful matching envelopes stored in our supply closet. Designed in-house, our stationary is full color, embossed, and printed on expensive paper that reflects the essence of who and what we feel we are to our clients. Unfortunately, many of our clients rarely see it as we use email as our chief means of written communication.
It takes us less time to send an email than a letter. We can copy multiple people who need to share in and be aware of the information or content we are sending, it is virtually immediate, reduces our cost of communicating, can move things forward quickly, clarifies and confirms phone communications faster than traditional correspondence, can provide potential customers the information they need to make a buying decision and thus move the critical path of selling along at a faster rate, and email generally increases our efficiency and improves the management of our time for the benefit of our clients.
While email clearly has numerous benefits, there are some considerations that you should take under advisement as you craft and send out emails to clients, colleagues, friends, and others to avoid embarrassment, potential lawsuits, or mis-communication:
1. Emails are NEVER private. EVER. If you send something out, it can, and often will be, shared with someone else, possibly multiple people, in a very short period of time. Never, ever, put anything in an email that you would not want to see plastered on the front page of the local newspaper.
2. Stay away from any comments or observations that can open you up to a law suit. See rule number 1 above.
3. Remember that once you hit the send button, your email can't be retrieved. Someone will get it, share it, and it will exist in the virtual world forever. Don't let your words come back to haunt you.
4. Sometimes things are best said face-to-face. Don't hide behind and email or allow an email to take the place of a personal encounter. Never deliver bad news via email.
5. Guard your written tone. Since your reader may take your email literally, sarcasm and humor in the written word are often best left to professional writers. Keep your tone clear, and if in doubt, have someone else read a printed copy (Rule 3) prior to hitting the send button. I like to save critical communications as drafts and come back later to relook at the content and get a fresh perspective.
6. With the spam filters and glitches that occur daily in our virtual world, important communications should also be delivered via an alternate means of communication, either by phone or traditional mail to ensure delivery. Additionally, remember that many people do not check their email daily, so be aware of this if your email contains time-sensitive deadlines, dates of appointments or scheduled meetings.
7. Always use spell checker. and remember that spell checker can only do so much. Words like write and right, their and there, weather and whether, among many others, are overlooked by spell checker. You MUST proof your work prior to hitting send.
8. If you struggle with grammar, craft your e-message in a Word document first, run a grammar check, then copy and paste. Use traditional sentence structures, avoid all caps, smiley faces, font colors other than blue or black, hard to read fonts, etcetera in your business communications.
9. Keep your tone professional and business-like when communicating with clients or potential clients. Save the jokes and casual tone for family and friends.
10. Do not provide any information in an email that is subject to change without providing a clear disclaimer that the offer or content may change without notice. Examples of this would be pricing, availability, terms, etcetera.
We hope these tips will help you to refine and polish your communication skills in the virtual world.
Happy Marketing!
Good pointers- I agree completely with #5. Emails are a a hard platform to express emotion-one persons view is not always an others.
Deborah
Great blog with very useable information thanks you for sharing your thoughts.
Good luck and success
Lou Ludwig
All great points -- my bottom line, if I wouldn't say something directly to someone why would I put it in an email? Be courteous and kind -- the written word does not include your body language, wink of the eye or voice tone -- that means what you say verbally may not be as cute or humorous in written form. ~ Evelyn
Deborah,
Great tips. I have another one for you - save the "!" for when it really is urgent. I know a couple of people who send everything out as urgent - which of course I know it isn't.
Steve
thank you for taking the time to create this excellent post -- liability issues are definitely a part of the email "language". Taking time, before hitting "send", is definitely good advice.
Hi Deborah,
Great tips! I like the number 1 ~ it is never private.
Catherine
Your post makes me think about my husband. He was happy to see a spell check feature on his blackberry. Thank God there is some help out there.
Thanks for the advice. Some of it I have heard and forgotten!
All these rules apply to texting also
Remember the Great Mayor of Detroit.
Dawn, thanks for your observations. Clearly from the number of books available in the book store and library, many of us struggle to communicate clearly and effectively orally, and now we are throwing written communication into the mix. The problem is that when we used to type up memos (or memoirs as I like to call them) or a letter, we would typically take the time to review it and digest it. Now, we dash off an email and hit send.
True story: a former associate sent out an email to a group of friends and co-workers, and probably everyone she had ever known since third grade. Her husband received the email, and then proceeded to write her about something of a personal and sexual nature in the form of a complaint. Instead of hitting reply to send it back to her, he hit reply to all. She handled it well and with humor by sending out a "reply to all" citing something about having 5 children, a full time job, a never ending supply of dirty laundry and a large house to clean. She ended her reply with a lesson in the difference between reply and reply to all.
Lou, glad you found it helpful. Good seeing you again at the Southeast Builder's Conference. Next stop - the International Builder's Show in Vegas. Should be a different market and draw some newer faces, don't you think?
Evelyn, thanks for your comments. Exactly why we have to be careful of how we craft those emails. We can do a lot of damage and create problems for ourselves without even realizing it. I don't know about you, but I try to avoid making my life and business any more complicated than I have to, how about you?
Steve, you are so right about the '!'. Thanks for adding it to the list. I probably also should have also said something about those internet jokes and touching stories that keep going around and around, so here it is:
If you keep sending someone jokes and stories, and never receive any back from that person, take that as a clue to remove that person for your joke of the day blitz.
Thanks for the reminder, Steve.
Li, thanks for your comments. Anytime we give direction or agree to something verbally, we put it in writing so that nothing can be misconstrued later. As for offers and incentives, or coming to terms on something through an email, be specific so that should you have to defend yourself in court you can produce the email.
Catherine, emails are the least private form of communication we have today. I don't think we really understand how dangerous they can be. Thanks for reading my blog.
Latonia, read my reply to Dawn above, and be sure to mention it to your husband. Thanks for your observations.
Melody, glad I could jog your memory and give you a quick refresher. We all tend to take the whole email process for granted since it has become such an everyday thing, and there lies a part of the problem.
Ah, Virgina, that is another post! LOL. But you are quite, quite right. We need some etiquette regarding texting as well.
Deb, nice reminder as to who can see what is written. There is no privacy. Knowing this, why does the finance minister from Nigeria keep telling me to keep their request secret but they do it through email? Don't they know about the whole "the world can see your email" thing in Nigeria? I don't think they know about the spell check thing either.
Great job Deborah & thanks for sharing! I especially like #4!! :)
Nice list especially about emails NOT being private - you can assume that they will be passed on.
Deborah
This is such good stuff. I am earmarking to refer back. Thanks!
Hi Deborah,
All great information and I guess this could be said for blogging as well
Dick Beals
Mark, thanks for your comment. Those deposed dictators and princes need to be careful about letting the coup leaders find out what they are up to. Not only have they lost their seats, they may also lose their heads!
Hey Deborah - good advise for all to remember!
Good points. Iwent to the bookstore to find a book on the "symbocabulary" and etiquette of texts and blogs and could not find one, so thanks for this post.