My message today is a departure from my entrepreneur series.  I had a request from a client to review with their employees email etiquette. It is a really dry topic but one we probably all can benefit from an occasional reminder!  The words we chose to convey our message whether in person or in writing matter.

An Example

I heard a story once about a military sargent whose job entailed distributing apricots at the end of the lunch time. Being bored with this seemingly trivial task,  he varied how he presented the apricots. Sometimes he would say, “You don’t want any apricots do you?”  The person met with this response generally did not take any apricots. Sometimes he would say,  ”Would you likes some apricots?”  This question led to more soliders having apricots. Finally he tried, “Would you like one or two servings of apricots?”  This led to the highest take rate of apricots! almost double the amount of apricots were selected then when asked “You don’t want any apricots do you?”

As we review email tips remember the words you chose are important when talking with your clients, contacts, customers, and employees!

Email Tips!

Always consider who you are sending your email message. How do they like to be addressed? Are they formal in their email or more casual? 

Always review your the message content before you send it out.

Use polite terms like please and thank-you, hello and goodbye, etc.  When you are in doubt it is always good to be more formal!

Always have a title to your message. Try to make sure it is a relevant title. This is important when forwarding.

If you forward a message to somebody else to deal with, tell the original sender so they know who to expect a reply from.

Do use emphasis where its useful to do so.

Never  reply to an email message when angry , as you may regret it later. Once the message has been sent, you will not be able to recover it.

Don’t type in CAPITALS as this is considered to be SHOUTING.

 Don’t make personal remarks about third parties. Email messages can be easily forwarded or misdirected.

Don’t send unsuitable email or attachments, especially anything of a sexual nature as they may well be found by a third party later.

Never, ever, use scanned images in a signature as these tend to be very large. Becareful of large attachments of any kind.

Don’t mark things as urgent if they aren’t, because then when you really do have an urgent message it may not be treated as such.

Be careful when adding recipients I recently had a client add an unintended recipient to an email. They shared confidential information with a third-party.

Use spell check! Always reread your message incase words are auto corrected inappropriately.

Today when you write an email think of the apricot story! Chose your words carefully and double your results!

For more inspiration check out: http://www.getyourbigon.com/start-big

Filed under: Entrepreneur, Get Your Big On, little tips for starting big!