Email – get more productivity from it
My last blog Better communication, higher productivity – the intergenerational solution – Part 1 – Kmend talked about the opportunity to gain greater productivity, morale and retention by reaching into the past and using relevant good practices to get the best from your email. As a short follow up I would like to share a few tips that may give you better engagement with just a little tweak.
Have you ever received an email and thought I must give that person a call to discover that there was no contact number in the signature? Have you ever received an email and wondered what position do they hold in the organisation? Have you ever received an email that failed to have the company name or a link to their website? I experience all of these and their variations on a regular basis and it is quite frustrating. In fact you may be receiving similar emails and will know exactly how I am feeling. So here are a few things to consider.
1. You are about to send an email or respond to one, ask yourself the question, could this be done more effectively by phone. Making that five minute call may remove the need for a lengthy email thread, may remove any misunderstandings and may make a better impression on the recipient. If there are actions or tasks that are agreed in that call they can be sent via email. Consider actually calling on people more often as this will help cement relationships and build rapport.
2. How often to you hit ‘Reply all’ or CC documents as you forward an email when it is not necessary at all. How often do you receive emails of this type and think to yourself, they are having a laugh. Email makes it easy to cover your back as you pass some element of responsibility to people who should not be involved in this thread, who don’t need the added work and who will not appreciate you including them. This type of action encourages a culture where everyone passes the buck and in doing so greatly reduces the productivity of everyone.
3. Before you send or forward an email, THINK: what do I want this person to do/what’s the subject? Then, select one of the below labels and add it to the Subject line to make it clear what the person is required to do as a result of receiving this email:
ACTION NEEDED – Compulsory for the recipient to take some action
DECISION REQUIRED – Requires a decision by the recipient
APPROVAL SOUGHT – Seeks permission or approval from the recipient
INFORMATION ONLY – For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required.
4. Be succinct, you do not need to write an essay. Think carefully about what you want to say and say it in the fewest number of words.
5. If they want to call me, is my phone number included in my email signature both on my phone and on my desktop. Make it easy for people to contact you. I created mine for free on my Mac but there are free and paid versions available.
Finally, I would like to make a suggestion on two areas that may give your customers/clients a better experience.
1. info@, sales@, accounts@ – these impersonal addresses are being used by companies of all sizes and I believe that this could be managed much better. For example could you use kevin@, karen@ or even some made up name to give the sender the sense that they are dealing with real people who care as opposed to faceless people who are hiding behind these generic URLs?
2. I still see some small businesses using @gmail.com or @yahoo.com etc. and I would ask them to consider changing this. Many business people see these types of addresses as lacking credibility and you may be doing yourself a disservice. It is easy and inexpensive to have a business address just using your name (alec@alecwdrew.com) or incorporating your business name but try to keep it reasonably short because you will be asked to call it out to people and long addresses can be picked up incorrectly.
I am available for workshops on Discover Your Hidden Resources Higher Fees for the Same Work and Networking – a lost art that drives new business. alec@alecwdrew.com 087 271 1955
I fully agree with you about businesses using a gmail, yahoo or other generic email provider instead of a dedicated business address. The dedicated ones just make you appear infinitely more professional with a small amount of effort.
I have to disagree on the idea of using a made up name instead of info@ or accounts@ type email addresses – at least the use of these is honest, you will get whoever answers those emails, maybe the same individual, maybe a team of people. However a false name email address is somewhat dishonest when the named person doesn’t exist. If I email kevin@….com and Niamh or some other name signs off on the reply, it’s going to get confusing and look somewhat chaotic to clients, in my opinion. I’m interested to hear what others think.