Who doesn’t love the speed, simplicity and convenience of e-mail? But misusing it can be unproductive.
“E-mail should help us work smarter, not harder,” says Ann Marie Sabath, a business etiquette consultant and president of Cincinnati-based At Ease Inc. “It has been designed to be an efficiency tool and all of us should learn to use it better.”
She and another expert offered some guidelines that are often overlooked in both sending and receiving e-mail.
First off, before you send any, find out how your recipient prefers to get information and make sure e-mail is acceptable. “Treat an e-mail address with the same respect as a business card,” Sabath cautions.
Within your organization, be sure to follow your superior’s lead on which form of communication is best, Sabath says, adding that as a consultant she once encountered a manager who became infuriated when underlings sitting only a few feet away relied on e-mail rather than talking face to face. In general, she says, when deciding between phone calls or e-mail, respect the preference of the person initiating the communication.
“Some people hide behind e-mail because they want a one-way conversation,” she says. “That’s very rude.”
So, once you’ve established that e-mail is acceptable, start writing, say the experts, beginning with a personal touch, something that will strike a chord with the recipient, such as “I enjoyed talking with you on the phone today . . . ” or “Thank you for your prompt reply.” Be sure to add a personal touch at the end as well. Keep the message fairly short and check your spelling and grammar. Remember to change the subject line when the topic has changed.
Avoid fancy formatting such as bold type, and be wary about sending attachments. Some people refuse to open them because of the time they take to download or because they can carry viruses. Instant messaging is another no-no, unless you know the recipient wants to use that feature.
Many people forget that their e-mail can easily be seen by people they hadn’t intended to contact. “Imagine your written messages will be seen by the CEO,” says Lillian D. Bjorseth, president of Duoforce Enterprises Inc. in Lisle.
Sabath and Bjorseth agree that good timing can be a boon to cyber communication. Sabath says that if you’re about to send a message at 5:30 p.m., hold off until the next morning. That way, she says, it should hit the top of the receiver’s pile.
Bjorseth says to be careful about responding to something that has made you angry or upset. She suggests drafting a letter, sleeping on it and sending it the next day if possible.
Follow-up calls or e-mails are fine, but be a little patient. Remember that some executives leave e-mail management to their assistants, says Sabath. Also, despite your effort to find the right contact person, your message may get passed on to that person’s boss or colleague.
And how to be a savvy receiver? If you haven’t already, organize your in-box so that messages are sorted by subject into directories or files. Deleting old messages regularly will help alleviate the frustration of feeling electronically swamped.
The experts suggest resisting the impulse to put off replying to an e-mail message. Why open it twice when you can respond right then? Stick to a short and sweet response: Thank the sender for the information and say whether you’re interested in pursuing the matter.
Sabath advises people to strive to be accessible and responsive, though she acknowledges that a company’s responsiveness is often shaped by top management. “Executives who are responsive are walking the walk for the people they manage,” she says.
If e-mail happens to be your client’s preferred communication mode, Sabath suggests scheduling some time to take that client to lunch so there is at least some face-to-face contact in your relationship.
Keeping responsiveness in mind, you also should set boundaries so that e-mail doesn’t become a distraction or, worse, an obsession.
Get into the habit of finishing one chunk of work at a time and checking your e-mail three or four times a day. If being alerted to every new message makes you lose your focus, Sabath advises, look into disabling that function on your computer.
“You don’t have to be accessible every single moment,” says Sabath. “Otherwise it becomes an interruption rather than an opportunity. I refuse to check my e-mail more than four times a day. And I will not check e-mail after 5:30 on Friday.”
Responding instantly to every e-mail you receive could work against you because you may appear too intense.
“Give yourself a break,” Sabath says, “and look like you have a life.”
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e-mail: jfitzgerald@tribune.com
