Managing E-mail
E-mail is a great business tool. When managed well it can really pay off. E-mail is efficient and cost-effective but as with every other business tool, the use of e-mail needs to be managed carefully. Here are some pointers to help you use e-mail to your best advantage. Bear in mind the following, however:
- Because e-mail is such an easy form of communication it is often misused and overused resulting in e-mail overload for everyone.
- If your business has a Web site you may need a policy for using e-mail that includes expectations about how to use appropriate language and what can be sent using the e-mail system.
- Remember, there is always more to learn about how to write good e-mails.
First, delete the junk and advertising. Second, do not respond to forwarded e-mail jokes, petitions, and trivia. Second, tell persistent individuals who continue to send that kind of material to remove you from their list. Respond to legitimate e-mails as soon as you read them; otherwise you are creating double duty—reading once when you get them and a second time at a later date to answer them. You can also control the general flow by using tools already in your e-mail program to filter incoming messages.
Some people will ask you for information as a way of managing their own responsibilities. This encourages some people to use you as an excuse for not doing their job. Rather than find out for themselves, they will bombard you with questions in the name of "research." Some will even ask you to deliver hard copies of data to their desks. If it is habitual or burdensome, tell them, either in person or directly through e-mail, that that you can't satisfy their request. You might suggest where they can find what they need, however.
Colleagues and friends can fire off e-mails in a heartbeat. This is life in the new millennium. But sometimes just one e-mail triggers a seemingly endless volley of messages before an issue can be resolved. Cut it short; pick up the phone and get to the point.
E-mail is integral to business operations, but important messages often get swamped because of the sheer number of e-mail messages we receive. Some programs allow you to automatically move them to specific folders. Using that feature can help you prioritize by subject matter or by sender. Don't let all incoming mail pile up in your inbox. It was recently estimated that almost 65 billion e-mails are sent every day. To prevent e-mail overload in your business, establish usage expectations and learn to isolate spam—unwanted or junk e-mail.
Most people today use the web to find out about your company and to make inquiries. Be sure to make your contact details accessible. Use different e-mail addresses to sort inquiries by topic. For example, consider a unique mailbox for each type of inquiry as well as having an employee e-mail directory for routine correspondence. Thus, you might have e-mail boxes such as sales@mycompany.com; support@mycompany.com; or jobs@mycompany.com, for example, if you use the web as a recruiting tool. Then, be sure to manage the inquiries and respond to each promptly.
If you have many routine inquiries, establish an automated response system to deal with them. Prepare web-based brochures, forms and attachments with the information most often requested. Or, better still, when you find some commonality in the requests, try to integrate those answers into your webpage. Send an automated reply to every inquiry acknowledging receipt and inform the correspondent when he or she can expect a detailed response.
When you're writing or replying to an e-mail, try to:
- respond quickly. If you can't, tell the inquirer when you think you will.
- make sure the subject line accurately reflects the content of your message. Don't use "Hello" in the subject line since it suggests that your message is social, not business.
- be casual and readable but not too friendly or informal. Always strive to be polite; use the person's name in the salutation and sign your own name at the end—even though it probably appears on the e-mail "from" line.
- match your tone to the purpose of the e-mail.
- check your spelling; everyone has a simple spell-check and your writing will appear unprofessional if you have too many "typos." Also, eliminate or reduce the use of abbreviated language such as "C U at 10" or "mtg off" unless it serves a specific purpose. Remember, too, that capital letters are viewed in e-mails as "shouting" and really annoys some people. Besides, they are hard to read.
- be very sparing in your use of "priority" or "urgent" flags. Use them only when the message is of utmost importance to the recipient.
- keep e-mails short. Get to the point. Everyone is suffering from e-mail overload.
- only include essential attachments.
- be very careful about not venting your anger in an e-mail—especially if you have received a rude or annoying e-mail and you haven't given yourself time to truly consider an appropriate response. Besides, you may have misunderstood the irritating message. Be sure of what you read. You may need to put it in a different context to understand it accurately. Be dignified in your reply and save it as a draft; then, read it again before you send it to be sure it professionally communicates what you mean. Remember, it is too easy to misunderstand e-mails that are often imprecise to begin with. Don't add to misunderstandings by losing control and distorting your own message.
- write carefully. Don't write anything in an e-mail that you can't defend.
- never, ever, send spam.
Regularly clean out your inbox. If you don't need it, delete it. E-mails can take up a lot of space on your computer system, especially if they have attachments, so get used to hitting the delete button. If you need the attachments, download them to other files. Remember, too, that even if you "delete" a message from an inbox, it remains in the trash. Some programs will automatically delete trash every 30 days or according to a timetable you set. It is a good idea to utilize this feature.
Because E-mail is an instant medium, it's easy to create and send a message without considering its impact and without giving proper attention to precision in your writing. Remember, abbreviations, acronyms, lack of punctuation, and not spell-checking may save time, but will make you look unprofessional. And, if you are too hasty you increase your chances of violating an aspect of e-mail etiquette.
Keep your e-mails concise and clear since they are read on a computer screen. Use upper and lower case letters and a legible typeface for visual ease. Avoid using capital letters too much. If you write a long message, help the recipient by using headings and links to Web sites with further information or attachments he or she can download.
Shipley, David,