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Showing items tagged with "thank you emails" - 3 found.

Articles of Note – September 2015

The holiday period was to some extent dominated by the Ashley Madison hacking and the havoc is wrecked for both organisations and individuals as summarized in this months blog and the on-going saga of Hilary Clinton’s emails sent on her personal account.  In between there was a piece we noted about Finland now teaching keyboard skills rather than cursive (joined-up) writing.

The Ashley Madison story 

1. Damaged reputations and one suicide are one outcome as hackers use the data to blackmail people.
2. Weak passwords make the hackers life easy to gain access to personal data.
3. Relationships are destroyed when those close to you find out what websites you have been visiting.
4. Never mind why you are accessing a dating website, what are the chances of find your partner there too?
5. You can never be sure that your data has removed and deleted as many found out even after paying to have their names removed.

Hilary Clinton email saga

1. Hilary Clinton deleted over 30,000 emails from her personal account.  Really? Platte River her email provider took no special measures to remove and as a result will now be able to recover them!  These old emails now looks set to blight her Presidential campaign.  This saga just underlines the adage ‘an email sent is there for life’ and about which we have blogged many times.

The keyboard overtakes cursive writing

1. Finish education authorities are to stop teaching joined up writing in favour of keyboard skills.  Surely there is room for both.  After all, one way to reduce email overload is to use pen and paper for saying thank you especially when the person has gone the extra mile. A hand written note carries so much more sincere.  (This is not an entirely new story and for those without a Times subscription click here for an alternative link.)

Tags: Ashley Madison, Cursive writing, email overload, Hilary Clinton, pen and paper, thank you emails

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Email etiquette to say thank you with sincerity

Saying ‘thank you’ is about both the medium and the content as David Tang wrote in the Financial Times last week.  A point I whole heartily endorse.  It is about conveying sincerity and it is better to send an email than do nothing.  If you choose to use email what is the best email etiquette to demonstrate sincerity?

Here are some tips.

• Start with a sentence which picks out the highlights of the reason for the ‘thank you’.  For example, your report was timely and
  

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  informative.  The day spent at was ……

• Avoid using emoticons as they can be misinterpreted.  Also bearing in mind the percentage of mature people in the workforce, not everyone knows what they mean.
• Use proper sentences, full words and no text speak.
• Keep it short – don’t gush.
• Send thank you emails as an exception rather than in response to each email your receive.

Call me old fashioned, (but as discussed previously) for my part I still prefer to send a conventional hand written note to express my gratitude, when someone has gone the extra mile.  And of course I am lucky having BomoArt as my  sponsor who provide me with the exquisite cards to do so.  That said, there is something about taking the time to buy a card that adds depth to the thank you.

However, in this day and age when first, many people are time poor and second, many cannot write properly and rely wholly on electronic devices, hopefully good email etiquette will help convey sincerity.

These are some of the aspects covered in Mesmo Consultancy’s Brilliant Email etiquette training masterclasses.

Tags: corporate email etiquette, email etiquette, email etiquette training, thank you emails

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‘Thanks’ but don’t add to my email overload

We all like to feel valued when we have either helped someone or done something really well. Many feel that saying thank you encourages better team work and bonding.  A point supported by David Desento’s research. But what is the best way to say thank you? A thank you email is one way and is often the default.  However, how many of those ‘thank you’ emails are really sent with genuine warmth and gratitude?  For those who receive over 50 emails a day, the ‘thank you’ either might be overlooked or worse still just add to feeling of suffering with chronic email and information overload.

In workshops and coaching sessions, when asked what annoys people the most about email,  75% cite ‘thank you’ emails.  Many perceive they are sent without thinking but rather almost as a Pavlovian response which is meaningless and without any feeling of real gratitude. After all if the boss ask for something why would you not do it.

In this age of electronic communications what is the best email etiquette to say thank you and do with feeling?  Drawing on discussions with clients and their experience here are some which work really well without driving up the email overload.

1.  Add a line at the end of the original email to show your gratitude in advance of the response.

2.  If the person has gone the extra mile and done an exceptional job then:

either

• Show your gratitude in person next time you see the person (either in words or with a small token of appreciation and the latter
  

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  especially if the person has gone the extra mile).

or

• Write a short hand-written note.  Several executives with whom I have worked with over the years pride themselves on having a collection of cards in their desk drawer for this purpose.  For the recipient, it feels like a prized award to be pinned to their noticeboard and sought after by others.  For myself, I am lucky as one of my sponsors BomoArt make delightful note cards for such a purpose.

3.  Only if none of the above work, should you ping back a ‘thanks’ email.  But make sure it sounds sincere and it stops there.  Don’t be sucked in to a pointless round of email ping-pong if they respond.

Using good email etiquette like this and switching to an alternative medium is also a very good way to improve performance and business relationships whilst at the same time reducing email and information overload.

For more ways like these to save time and enhance productivity ask us about our email best practice training and coaching.

Tags: corporate email etiquette, email best practice, email overload, thank you emails

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