E-mail etiquette
Email has become a routine form of communication for social and business purposes. Since WebCubic has increased its customer base significantly this year, especially from non-real estate customers, we thought we would share some "etiquette" that everyone shold employ for email. Most of our technical support queries comes via email and we are experiencing some difficulties as a result of different email habits.Here are some basics:
ADDRESSEES. The specific individual(s) should be identified in the TO: line. Others that should be copied (your supervisor, for example) should be listed as a CC: The expectation of the originator is that the email is directed to the TO: addressees and responses are expected from them. There is no such expectation from CC: addressees.
SUBJECT. Use a meaningful subject. Avoid simply a name or generic entry such as "problem" or "need response". With so much spam, such unspecific subjects are likely to be automatically deleted.
RESPONSE. You should always respond to an email if you are a primary addressee. Not only is it courteous to do so, but others are relying upon action or answers from you that impact their activities. Some say that it demonstrates a callous disregard for others if you do not respond. We agree. When should a response be made? There is no general expectation of a response in minutes because you may not receive your email until a later time. Respond at the end of the day if you are busy all day or at least at the beginning of the following day.
You should set your email client so that the original email content is also present in the response. It creates confusion if this is not done. The objective of email is to communicate. Confusion is not communication.
METHOD OF RESPONSE. You would generally do a "reply all" on a response. Everyone addressed on the original email will see the response and be kept "in the loop". An exception would be a situation where you need to make a private response. If you need to forward your email to someone else for their action or to make them aware of the email subject, you should copy the originator so they are also aware of this.
CONTENT. While there is no need to write hundreds of words in an email, there must be enough material to fully explain the situation and the requested actions. Occassionally people will email to "rant" about a problem, but it is often best not to do that. Such communications should be done in a voice-to-voice conversation.
More to follow.
posted by Shig Nishio @ 5/04/2008 02:43:00 PM
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