Email Etiquette – E-Book

When you want to be PRACTICAL … HANDS ON … PROFESSIONAL

I once worked with a Navy Admiral who used all lower case text in his emails. I found that surprising … it just seemed that his decorum should have been a notch more proper. No judgment. Okay, so that sounds a little judgmental.

The difference for women? We are excellent communicators, but are sometimes reactive. With email as a primary form of communication, there is a high potential for misinterpretation. Here’s some help for minding your P’s and Q’s.

Here are some TIPS that WORK

FORMAT

• Include any target due date in the subject line.
• Agree upon a level of importance and state that in the subject line.
• Avoid over-rating your importance level or exaggerating with the use of IMPORTANT and URGENT, unless absolutely necessary.
• CC anyone that does not need to take action, but should have a record of the email.
• If you are responding to an email and changing the subject at all, change the subject line too.

and many more formatting suggestions…

APPROPRIATENESS and TONE

• Sensitive issues should not be transmitted through email, but rather handled in person or by phone.  This would include any email where critiquing is involved, or where it could be interpreted as criticism.
• Delivering a negative answer to an internal customer is considered delivering bad news.  Key dialogs between customers and suppliers should be in person or on the phone.

and many more appropriateness suggestions…

TOPIC CONTENT

• Limit email usage to a single topic.
• For long emails, include a summary statement at the start of the email so that it can be quickly scanned and dispositioned.
• Make the subject line meaningful.  For example:  “Jackson case review” is too vague.  Consider instead: “Draft agenda items for Jan 30th Jackson case meeting”

and many more Topic Content suggestions…

SPAM TOOLS

• Your system should have an efficient filter for spam checking. A spam tool should scan your outgoing e-mail and thoroughly check for keywords and phrases that may trigger the spam filters.  It helps ensure your e-mail lands in your audience’s inbox rather than their junk mail folder.
• If your business owns a website, then it may be that the spam-check tool came with it. If not, consider a website service that integrates Spam-Check for you that includes great tools like SpamCheck.

EXAMPLES of what NOT to do

“You really irritated our customers yesterday.  We need to talk about it.”

“I don’t like the way you made the decision to go forward, Jerry.”  (AND sent as a Reply All)

Sound familiar? Can you recognize what is wrong with each example above? Every one of those breaks the rules of email etiquette.

Poor workplace email etiquette does more than just violate a (usually unwritten) standard.

HOW TO TAKE IT TO THE NEXT STEP

TUNE UP your PROFESSIONAL IMAGE and that of  your OFFICE.

You send a message about your professional posture and discipline with office procedures, both as an individual and as a company.  It is a part of a bigger code of propriety called netiquette.

Do you want to convert your workplace to a more professional, less inflammatory place to work – without pain?

It’s so dang simple, it’s ridiculous. But it takes someone with a drive to change (which is why YOU have come this far.) Which is why we wrote the e-book to get you there.

In addition to the immediate, and critical tips we give you right now listed below, we will send you a downloadable e-book to take you through the Email Etiquette process for you and your co-workers.

This e-book will:

1. help eliminate the headaches of poor emails, inappropriate use of emails, and “flaming” emails that continue to pass the buck
2. provide the guidelines for format, appropriateness and tone, topic content, and grammar
3. share case studies of how proper email management freed up time for employees
4. provide a step-by-step process for defining the email policies in your office and getting them implemented
5. give you samples of what not to do when writing an email
6. include a few exercises for writing effective phrases in email that you can use yourself or provide as a practice tool to employees

 

We pride ourselves on providing great content so we stand by our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee the book is only$22 and you can copy it for use in your company.