E-Mail Writing 1.2
Email
Etiquette
An
organization needs to implement etiquette rules for the following three
reasons:
1.
Professionalism: by using proper email language an organization will convey a
professional image.
2. Efficiency: emails that get to the point
are much more effective than poorly worded emails.
3. Protection from Liability: employee
awareness of email risks will protect the organization from costly law suits.
Most
Important Email Etiquette Tips
a.
Be concise and to the point. Do not make an e-mail longer than it needs to be. Remember that reading an e-mail is harder than reading printed communications
and a long e-mail can be very discouraging to read.
b.
Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions. An email reply must
answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions – If you do not answer all
the questions in the original email, you will receive further e-mails regarding
the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your time and your
customer’s time but also cause considerable frustration. For example, a
customer sends you an email asking which credit cards you accept. Instead of
just listing the credit card types, you can guess that their next question will
be about how they can order, so you also include some order information and a
URL to your order page. Customers will definitely appreciate this.
c.
Make it personal. Not only should the e-mail be personally addressed, it should
also include personal i.e. customized content. For this reason auto replies are
usually not very effective. However, templates can be used effectively in this
way, see next tip.
d.
Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation. This is not only important
because improper spelling, grammar and punctuation give a bad impression, it is
also important for conveying the message properly. E-mails with no full stops
or commas are difficult to read and can sometimes even change the meaning of
the text. And, if your program has a spell checking option, why not use it?
e.
Use templates for frequently used responses. Some questions you get over and
over again, such as directions to your office etc. Save these texts as response
templates and paste these into your message when you need them. You can save
your templates in a Word document, or use pre-formatted emails.
f.
Answer swiftly. Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a quick
response. If they did not want a quick response they would send a letter or a
fax. Therefore, each e-mail should be replied to within at least 24 hours, and
preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, just send
an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to
them. This will put the customer's mind at rest and usually customers will then
be very patient!
g.
Do not attach unnecessary files. By sending large attachments you can annoy
customers and even bring down their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to
compress attachments and only send attachments when they are productive.
h.
Use proper structure & layout. Since reading from a screen is more difficult
than reading from paper, the structure and lay out is very important for e-mail
messages. Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. When
making points, number them or mark each point as separate to keep the overview.
i.
Do not write in CAPITALS. IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE
SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response in
the form of a flame mail. Therefore, try not to send any email text in
capitals. 
j.
Read the email before you send it. A lot of people don't bother to read an
email before they send it out, as can be seen from the many spelling and
grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email
through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message
and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.
k.
Do not overuse Reply to All. Only use Reply to All if you really need your
message to be seen by each person who received the original message.
l.
Mailings > use the Bcc: field or do a mail merge. When sending an email
mailing, some people place all the email addresses in the To: field. There are
two drawbacks to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the
same message to a large number of recipients, and (2) you are publicizing
someone else's email address without their permission. One way to get round
this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field.
m.
Use a meaningful subject. Try to use a subject that is meaningful to the
recipient as well as yourself. For instance, when you send an email to a
company requesting information about a product, it is better to mention the
actual name of the product, e.g. 'Product A information' than to just say
'product information' or the company's name in the subject.
n.
Take care with abbreviations and emoticons. In business/ official emails, try
not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The
recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in
business emails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes for
emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient
knows what it means, it is better not to use it.
o.
Be careful with formatting. Remember that when you use formatting in your
emails, the sender might not be able to view formatting, or might see different
fonts than you had intended. When using colors, use a color that is easy to
read on the background.
p.
Avoid long sentences. Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of 15-20 words.
Email is meant to be a quick medium and requires a different kind of writing
than letters. Also take care not to send emails that are too long. If a person
receives an email that looks like a dissertation, chances are that they will
not even attempt to read it!
q.
Use active instead of passive. Try to use the active voice of a verb wherever
possible. For instance, 'We will process your order today', sounds better than
'Your order will be processed today'. The first sounds more personal, whereas
the latter, especially when used frequently, sounds unnecessarily formal.
After
knowing this all, (advantages and disadvantages of email, basic email
etiquettes) we must use email as a time saver rather than a time waster.
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