LAST week we looked at some of the legal ramifications of sending e-mail and also made recommendations about its general use. This week we offer some more basic advice to help prevent you from embarrassing yourself and/or your company at some point in the near future.

Salutations

How personal is too personal? Business correspondence is formal, so keep your business e-mail formal. Use “Dear Mr Smith”. If you know the party well, and normally call, them by their first name then you can use “Dear Joe”.

Too much punctuation!!!

Do not use excessive punctuation. Exclamation points (called “bangs” in computer circles) are just another form of ending a sentence. A dozen exclamation points at the end of a sentence for added emphasis is not professional. If something is important it should be reflected in your text, not in your punctuation.

Don’t be a novelist

Messages should be concise and to the point. Think of it as a telephone conversation, except you are typing instead of speaking. It is important to remember that some people receive hundreds of e-mail messages per day; they do not have time to read your novella.

Pulitzer Prizes are not given for telephone conversations; they are not likely to be given for e-mail messages either.

Do not write in CAPITALS

CAPITALS IN E-MAIL MEANS THAT YOU ARE SHOUTING. This is rude and might trigger an unwanted response.

Read the e-mail before you hit “send”

Many people don’t read an e-mail before they send it out. The many spelling and grammar mistakes we see daily confirm this. Reading your e-mail through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.

Privacy does NOT exist

Read carefully – There is no such thing as a private e-mail. With some e-mail systems, the administrator has the ability to read any and all e-mail messages. Some companies monitor employee e-mail.

Occasionally things will go wrong and you may end up receiving e-mail meant for another person or your e-mail may get sent to the wrong person. Either way, what you thought was private is not private anymore. Hackers may also be able to read your e-mail if s/he tries hard enough.

The Rule of Thumb

Don’t send anything by e-mail that you would not want posted on the company’s notice board. If you are hem-ing and haw-ing about whether or not to send something personal by e-mail, play it safe – do not.

Designed for Convenience

E-mail is a conversation that does not require an immediate response. If someone calls you on the telephone, you pick it up and the conversation begins. With an e-mail, you send a message and wait for a response. The response may come in five minutes or in five days.

If a hundred people send you e-mail in one day, you didn’t have to talk with all one hundred. With e-mail, you only deal with their messages and you can deal with them on your own time. However, many users assume that the minute someone receives an e-mail, the person will read it. Bad assumption.

Remember, e-mail was not designed for immediacy, it was designed for convenience.

Answer swiftly

People send an e-mail because they want to receive a quick response. Therefore aim to respond to each business related e-mail within 24 hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the e-mail is complicated, just send an e-mail back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the sender’s mind at rest and they will usually wait patiently to hear from you.

Requesting delivery and read receipts

Some people block that function, or the software might not support it. If you want to know whether or not an e-mail was received, ask the recipient.

Save A Tree

Your e-mail system probably has “folders” that can be used to permanently store messages for recall at any time in the future. Please use it. One of the benefits of e-mail usage is to eliminate (or greatly reduce) the use of paper. Still, a significant number of people print every message they receive. Remember that not all messages should be printed.

Dr Semaj is a frequent facilitator for Strategic Planning Retreats, Cultural Alignment and Organisational Restructuring. He conducts Staff Selection and Development Programmes for different business sectors across the Caribbean.