What does your email etiquette say about you?
For many of us this topic is a no brainer. But surprisingly what we’re finding more often than not is people really don’t have a grasp on professional email protocol. We’re here to reveal the worst habits and what you should do to make sure you avoid them.
- The Cricket Effect
- You can’t go quiet or be stagnant for any extended period of time. This applies to everyone from Doctors to accountants to the mom & pop shop down the road. You cannot skip an email from a potential customer and expect
them to stay interested, right? Plus, if a client is counting on you for urgent or time-sensitive information and you let life get in the way, you’re guaranteed to lose valuable, long term relationships. - Here’s what you do: If you know you’re terrible at communicating the same day, set up an auto-responder that lets your customer know that you love them and that you’ll be in touch within 24 hours to buy you some time. You’ll never have dead air time and they at least know you received their inquiry and will be helping them soon.
- You can’t go quiet or be stagnant for any extended period of time. This applies to everyone from Doctors to accountants to the mom & pop shop down the road. You cannot skip an email from a potential customer and expect
- Always an Excuse
- Unfortunately, we all have phones, tablets, laptops and even desktops at our fingertips – which means we all know if we sent you an email you’ve likely received it. So other than a true technical glitch occurring, you’ve got to stop using “I didn’t see it” it as an excuse.
- Here’s what you do: Sync your email up to your phone so you can at least let your client, patient, customer, or prospect know you’ve heard them. Additionally, always check your sneaky spam box!
- Never Any Time
- If you’re guilty of saying you never have enough time to go through all of your emails then it’s kind of like saying you don’t care enough to answer people who made the time for you – ouch.
- Here’s what you do: Designate 1 time per day to respond to urgent/important emails and ignore the rest. Once you’ve stuck with checking it 1 time per day for a few weeks, amp it up. Oh and if you’re not using Gmail you’re missing out on a HUGE time saver. They have filters in place to organize your social updates, promotions, and important updates, but you can add custom filters, too.
- Forgetting Something?
- There’s nothing worse than sending someone an email with more than one question and only getting one answer in return.
- Here’s what you do: Respond to their message in line which means instead of starting a whole new email simply answer each of their questions right in the body of their message. Use a different color font and leave them impressed with your attention to detail.
- No Contact Info
- It’s super important to give people ways to contact you other than email. Not everyone favors email and not every conversation is meant to take place over the computer. If you always forget to include your contact info, we have the cure.
- Here’s what you do: Go to the settings of your email account and make a customized signature for yourself You can even link people directly to your site or social media! Here’s what mine looks like:
“Warmly,
Lori Kaye,Director at Lion LinQ
- Cookie Cutter
- If you’ve got most of this down but you’re looking for a way to stand out, make your emails a little more special. Your sign off can say a lot about you or nothing at all. People may not even bother reading it if it’s the same as everyone else’s.
- Here’s what you do: Make your sign-off you by including something relevant to your business. I’ve seen yogini’s say “In Peace” instead of “respectfully” for example.
- Going Overboard
- Ok who really reads an email that looks more like an essay? No one. But if you’re at work and you must include a ton of info there’s a great way to keep everyone captivated.
- Here’s what you do: FORMAT IT! Bold key points, use different colors to indicate urgent information, underline, keep it in an outline format, and eliminate any data that’s unnecessary.
- Too Emojional
- First remember to never send an email when you’re upset! I mean never. Second, emails don’t convey emotion but people can interpret your wording differently than you meant it to come out.
- Here’s what you do: So don’t overdo it on the emoticons, suggest a phone call or in-person meeting for anything that can be easily misconstrued.
- OOPS!
- We’ve all had that moment when our stomach drops as we realize we just sent a private email to the wrong person or hit reply all by accident. Never fear, there is a solution!
- Here’s what you do: You can UNDO your sent email!
- Secrets, Secrets are no fun
- If your boss is adamant that they need to see outgoing messages or you want to include certain people without the sender knowing, there’s a super easy fix.
- Here’s what you do: Add their email to the “BCC” line. It means blind carbon copy so the receiver has no idea these people are also able to see the email.
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