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International Clean Out Your Inbox Week: Day 4 The Power of Proper Business Email Etiquette

Thursday January 24th, 2019, 5:41 pm

Day 4 – Proper Business Email Etiquette to Keep the Inbox Clean

I can feel the twinkle of his eyes in his handshake.  Helen Keller

Good business email etiquette  is one of the quickest ways to stop email overload. Proper business email etiquette enables you to convey the right message, right first time.  This reduces the chance of a misunderstanding and hence email war and endless rounds of email ping-pong. will help.  You have less than five seconds before the recipient has formed an opinion of you for better or worse.  Poor email etiquette can damage your reputation in a nanosecond.  Proper business email etiquette grabs their attention substantially increases the likely-hood of a timely response.

Based on using brilliant email etiquette, here are today’s four steps to reduce even further the level of email overload and hence keep the inbox clean and empty.

Step 1 – Benchmark your business email etiquette

Use our special free email Business Etiquette Check List to benchmark your email etiquette.  Where and how can you improve?

Step 2 – Review your inbox for existing chains

Are there any email chains which could have been prevented if you had either communicated more clearly or planned ahead?  What lessons can you learn from these?

Step 3 – Review your email before hitting send

Ask yourself, what image am I conveying of myself? How clear and concise is my email based in the checklist at Step 1. Brilliant Emailsecretary1

Did you include an adequate greeting and closure to entice the recipient to respond properly?  For more tips on how email etiquette can help you achieve an empty inbox and reduce email overload see Brilliant Email chapter 12 and ‘Taking Control of Your Inbox‘ chapter 11.

Step 4 – Help others improve their business email etiquette

Be bold. If you receive an email you cannot understand on the first reading, ask the sender what they are trying to say.  Send them a link to our Email Etiquette Checklist.

Dare to share

Share your progress; EmailFacebookTwitter  (using #cleaninbox)  There is a prize for the person who has used email etiquette most effectively (a copy of ‘Brilliant Email‘).

For more resource

Invest in a copy of either ‘Brilliant Email’ or for ‘Taking Control of Your Inbox’ (written especially for PAs, EAs and VAs).

Tomorrow we look at how to reduce the volume of email traffic through your inbox.

Dare to share

Share your progress; Email; Facebook: Twitter (using #cleaninbox) There is prize for the person with the best way of keeping track of emails on which you defer action (copy of ‘Brilliant Email’ or ‘Taking Control of Your Inbox’).

Twitter_logo_blueFollow me on Twitter using #cleaninbox.

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Linkedin, Google+ etc.

For more time saving tips and hints why not buy a copy of one of our books or let us run a Smart Email Management workshop for you and your colleagues.
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