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It’s that time of year when it’s easy to become complacent and let our email etiquette slip. Coming back from a festive lunch (drink or even dinner) you decide to clear the email backlog and are in a frivolous mood. Then there are all those Santa hats and jumpers you wear.
To some extent they are OK because they are here today and gone tomorrow and few remembers what you were wearing a week ago. However, like a puppy and kitten, an email is for life despite your best endeavours to recall it!
Here are five top tips on business email etiquette to preserve your professional image when all about you are losing their heads.
You might also want to avoid letting colleagues (and friends) post images of you on their social media sites with those fun hats etc. Although you can delete your posts, you do not not have control over other people’s sites. 2018 might be when you look for a new job and recruiters often look in depth at candidates internet foot prints before making a judgement.
Tags: business email etiquette, cybercrime, Professional image
When colleagues receive 70+ emails per day, what is the most effective business email etiquette to draw their attention to a critical and urgent email? There are several ways such as priority markers and read receipts. Neither are that effective because they can appear rude and annoying, and be overlooked especially as some senders use them for everything.
A follow-up phone call? A very good idea but what if the person is out of phone contact.
How about sending the email so that the subject-line shows in red in the recipient’s inbox? This is the business email etiquette one client uses and finds it very effective. Here is how it work.
To send an email that will appear red in the recipient’s inbox.
1. Open a new email
2. From the Tags menu block click on Follow Up and select Custom... from the drop down menu.
3. In the Custom dialogue box, click on the Flag For Recipients. Click on Reminder and set the date and time you want the recipient to be reminder. After that date the email turns red.
Note – If you include a ‘Flag for Me’ (top half of the dialogue box), the reminder will also show up on your Task List.
4. To make the email Red on receipt, set the reminder date to a date and time in the past (ie before you send it).
As with all such attention seeking email etiquette practices, it is vital that you agree whatever process you employ with the other person prior to using it, otherwise you risk coming across as arrogant and too clever by half!
What’s your preferred business email etiquette to highlight important emails?
To learn more ways like this about how to send emails which attract the recipient’s attention without appearing rude attend on one of our Smart Email Management Masterclasses. These are run in-company as either conventional classroom sessions or webinars. For more information call or email us now.
Tags: business email etiquette, High priority emails, High priority markers, Red emails, Urgent emails
For the last five years, Inbox Zero was the holly grail for many who wanted to save time dealing with email. But did it really help and reduce email overload? Is your business email etiquette and social media footprint helping or hampering your chances of a new job? How quickly can you spot fake news? These are some of the topics we highlight for this month.
1. What is the best way to manage your inbox and email overload? Over the years many different approaches to email management have been touted as the salvation for everyone suffering from business email overload. These include Inbox zero which many pursued as the holy of grail of business email management. Now Merlin Mann its inventor doubts its effectiveness and suggest that it might indeed be a complete waste of time. So what are we left with, the sledge hammer or goldfish approaches? In this Guardian guest blog, Monica reviews the options.
2.Eight email (etiquette) mistakes which bug your colleagues. Adding kisses and emoticons, not including a greeting and informal content are just some of the things you might be doing with email which annoys your colleagues. This is what a recent study by CV-Library revealed. Sending emails well out-side normal office hours is also very annoying. None of this is new but these are also business email etiquette habits which might be costing you your next job (including when emailing recruitment companies).
Check your business email etiquette using the Mesmo Consultancy on-line analytical tool. It is so easy to fall into sloppy habits as we work under increasing time pressures. Make sure this is not happening to you and that your business email etiquette is not jeopardising your next job. For more tips see the Mesmo Business Email Etiquette video the Five S Formula for Writing Effective Emails.
3. Deep clean your internet activity. Yes, the first port of call for recruiters is often the internet. What will they find out about you? Old social media posts which you forgot to remove. One of us was recruiting for a CEO. After finding information about a potential candidate they phoned a business associate who might know more. Yes, you guessed, the candidate did not make it past the first round. You cannot remove all the content for example reputable news content. However, you can clean up your social media posts as this article explains.
4. Corporate leaders: keep your Yammering in check. It is not just the Millenials and Snowflakes that need to be mindful of what they post on the web. CEOs too can sometimes wreak havoc with their posts as Jean- Sébastien Jacques CEO of Rio Tinto found. It is easy to get carried away by the ease of posting and one’s own self-importance. In the process as Mr Jacques and others have found they can reveal too much personal information and sensitive data which causes mayhem. On the other hand there is a line of thought which says there is no such thing as bad publicity. It’s a very fine dividing line as these articles have demonstrated and which need treading with great care and attention.
5. Spotting fake news. Pre the web, we used to say there are lies and dam lies. We were taught to study the statistics used and look for inconsistencies etc. Whilst this is still a vital skill, the challenge is how to spot news on social media which is fake. Here is an excellent concise guide on how to do it.
Tags: business email etiquette, Business email overload, Fake News, inbox zero, Mesmo Consultancy, Millenials, Snowflakes, The Guardian, Yammer
This months business email management articles of note feature one by ourselves on how to manage the instant reply syndrome yet still make key clients feel loved. There are three on business email etiquette and the importance of communicating clearly if you want people to notice your email without being pushy. There are two on various aspects of cyber crime from house deposits going to imposter’s bank accounts and the penalty for forwarding confidential emails and then trying to delete the evidence.
1. Managing the Instant Reply Syndrome. You are working on an important (maybe time critical) task, yet people still expect an instant reply to their email. Based on our recent work in the independent schools sector here are some ways to manage expectations including those of your most important clients and colleagues.
2. Use stories to highlight your companies purpose. From Erica Keswin my fellow member of the Information Overload Research Group IORG this fascinating article highlights the importance on story telling to communicate your message clearly. Although emails should be short, using a client/colleague comment in the opening sentence can help your message stand out.
3. How I lost my 25 year battle against corporate claptrap. How can you commit 110%? It’s mathematical nonsense as Lucy Kellaway points out. Lucy has been the Financial Times business columnist who can be depended on to de-bunk current management guff. In her last column based on examples collected over the years she provides examples of how to write pure meaningless flannel. There are salient lessons on email etiquette to be drawn from this article. Never use long/complex words when a short one will do. Emails should be succinct and structured if you want to avoid endless rounds of email ping-pong and potential email wars. See Mesmo Consultancy’s recent video on the 5Ss of business email management etiquette.
Thank you Lucy Kellaway for writing the introduction to Brilliant Email and being subjected to a Mesmo Consultancy Email Inbox Audit from which we learnt some lessons.
4 Why those small words in an email say a lot about you. A timely reminder that how you write emails is a picture of you and your organisation. It’s your digital dress code. So why spoil a good suit by wearing war paint on your face and scruffy shoes. That is essentially what you are doing when you forget to include a greeting and use a sloppy sign-off. Check your business email etiquette. Is it up to the mark?
5. Cyber crooks loot millions set aside for house sales. It never ceases to amaze us at Mesmo Consultancy how people still fall for the simplest of cyber crime tricks. House sellers transferring deposits found that Instead of the money going to the solicitors they went to an imposter’s bank account. When undertaking such transactions always transfer a very small amount first to check they arrive in the correct account. Will we ever learn?
6. Employee sentenced to six weeks imprisonment for deleting confidential emails. So you think you can delete emails and go un-noticed? Think again. This article contains lessons for both employers and employee about sending confidential information via email.
Are these business email management issues which you or your organisation face? Call or email us now to discuss how our email best practice workshops and consultancy service can help you.
Tags: business email etiquette, cyber crime, Erica Keswin, IORG, Lucy Kellaway
A mixed bag this month, including email etiquette to improve sustainability and why reaching inbox zero might not be the right goal.
1 Business email etiquette for sustainability – top tips on how to reduce the energy and resources needed to manage your inbox.
The problem with email overload – the author suggests that reaching inbox zero is not sustainable. Unlike climbing Everest, once there you have achieved something. No sooner have you reached inbox zero, the inbox rapidly fills up again and you are in effect back to ground zero. And especially for those who receive in excess of 100 emails a day. We would argue it is about reducing the number your receive, changing your email behaviour and using the software etc to help you manage the inbox.
2. Think about saying no more often as advocated by Lucy Kellaway. Although more in relation to time management it also applies to helping reduce email overload.
3. MPs email accounts hacked – perhaps with all the chaos surrounding the recent election it was not surprising that hackers took advantage of it and hacked several MPs accounts! Interestingly those most vulnerable were those with weak passwords. Click here for how to create strong passwords.
4. We now spend 13 hours a week on email. Yes, its true according to a recent survey from McKinsey. Is this realistic and the best use of our time? The article suggests not surprisingly ridding yourself of all unwanted emails and learning to use the technology better.
How good are you with Outlook? Benchmark yourself now with our on-line tool.
5. All is revealed by Johnny Depp’s business manager. In the midst of an acrimonious lawsuit Johnny Depp’s business manager has revealed very personal emails to show that Depp did indeed know about his dire financial situation. Again this like Beckham email faux pass which demonstrates that you only have control over one aspect of email – choosing to hit Send. After that you have no control over where the email goes.
Tags: business email etiquette, Email faux pas, Email hacked, email overload, Johnny Depp