E-mails are a way of life – much to the chagrin of the U.S. Postal Service.
While they may be “free” and so easy to send and receive, there are many common mistakes made when using e-mail to communicate.
Here are six pointers:
- Grammar and punctuation still count! Take the extra moment to proofread before sending all e-mails. Be concise, and use clear subject lines.
- Using all uppercase or bold fonts – Can be interpreted by the recipient as shouting.
- Using all lowercase and/or no punctuation – Gives recipients the impression you value your time more than theirs, or that you are lazy, illiterate, or, worse yet, don’t care.
- Flagging/marking messages as urgent! – You can get a bad reputation by always flagging e-mails as priorities or urgent, even if they truly aren’t. And, have you ever heard of the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome?
- Watch out for Outlook choosing the wrong recipient – I can’t tell you how many embarrassing moments I’ve heard of where the sender of an e-mail let the not-so-handy feature of Microsoft Outlook choose who should get a message. So, if you do rely on this feature, when you type a few letters of a person’s e-mail account, and one or more pops up for you to select the right one, you’d better be 110% sure it’s the RIGHT person before you hit “Send.” You can’t recall an e-mail already sent – and it sure will make you look bad to apologize for sending the wrong person a message meant for someone else!
- E-mails are never truly deleted – All e-mails are the property of your employer/company. So, remember this the next time you send a sensitive personal e-mail that can be retrieved from the hard drive (there is no true “deleting” when it comes to “trashing” an e-mail).
Like any communication tool, e-mail needs to be used effectively.
So, be brief, get to the point, and don’t send an e-mail when a quick phone call or stroll across the hallway for a face-to-face can work even better.