E-Mail Etiquette

E-Mail Etiquette by Mel Rappleyea,SPHR,CEBS,CSP

E mail is a tragic necessity to communicate in business . It is often misused. Some examples.

WRITING IN ALL CAPS

Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, writes about why you shouldn’t use all capital letters in subject lines.

“Some people mistakenly believe that using all capital letters in their subject line is a great way to get the attention of the recipient. What they fail to realize is that using all caps is a great way to trigger SPAM filters, and even if your message gets through, it’s annoying, makes you look shady, and just isn’t professional,” Kennedy writes.

Forbes also cautions about  taking the “WeIRd CaPs SPelLInG” approach.

‘URGENT’

If it’s a pressing issue, just pick up the phone and give the recipient a call.

Crying wolf over and over will water down your messages. People define Urgent differently. To The CEO "Urgent may mean Charlie was taken to the hospital. Writing 'URGENT" then telling the employees reports must be signed in blue ink and not black just comes across as silly.

OVER EMAILING

Literally I use to get 30 emails a day from our Junior Controller.

I went by my Benefit Directors desk and asked "Tatiana did you get a email from Tony?". She barked back "Which one? I get about 30 to 40 a day from him. I made a special folder and I move his emails over to them as they come in. When I get time I will read them but most are foolish or CYA (Cover your Assets) emails so he doesn't get in trouble for forgetting something. Honestly Mel, his emails are worse than spam."

Sample Tony emails. Yes in entirety (they are either one sentence or a novel. Here are the single sentence ones)

1) " Is orientation today?"

2) " I have an idea, will share at lunch today"

3) "Can we talk about Dave/" ( Okay 3,000 people in the company. about 30 Dave or Davids. Which one?)

4) "We should follow up with a meeting" ( follow up what?)

Try not to overload people with multiple emails.You will get quicker responses.Sending mass emails constantly either looks like A...you have too much time on your hands or B...your communication skills are lacking.

CC IN TOO MANY PEOPLE

When sending a cc to various people take a moment to think. Does this person really need to be copied? Also the dreaded "reply all" as 57 people all respond to everyone that they received the email or a comment, then a email thread as long as the national debt is born.

My favorite is the trickster that bcc the CEO in to the email BUT the CEO not realizing he was bcc in responds his comments to everyone therefore killing the confidentiality and probably making those cc mad that the sender sent a bcc to the CEO.

EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YesWare data scientists took a look at a staggering 115,886,636 emails sent across 356 days,.The results are called  Email Subject Lines That Actually Work. It shows why using exclamation points isn’t a good idea.

The open rate for average email subject lines was 51.9%, but for ones with an exclamation point, it was was 45.5%.

The reply rate for average emails was 29.8%, but the one for emails with an exclamation point is 22.2%.

“Chances are that email didn’t even make it to their inbox in the first place. Research shows that exclamation points in subject lines lead to lower than average open rates because this type of punctuation is actually a trigger for spam filters.

ONE WORD

The recipient might just reply to you with the same amount of effort. So be brief and to the point — just don’t be one-word-brief.