The use of e-mail in corporate culture is pervasive. I rarely get letters any more. Even phone calls are uncommon. But I get scores of e-mail messages every day. Yet, I am continually surprised at how people often misuse this medium.
Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/DNY59
Therefore, I would like to humbly offer up 18 suggestions for better e-mail communication and etiquette:
- Understand the difference between “To” and “CC.” As a rule of thumb, the more people you send an email to, the less likely any single person will respond to it, much less perform any action that you requested. The people you include in the “To” field should be the people you expect to read and respond to the message. The “CC” field should be used sparingly. You should only CC people who have a need to stay in the know. The “BCC” field should be used even more sparingly. People you include in the “BCC” field will not visible to others.
- Keep messages brief and to the point. Make your most important point first, then provide detail if necessary. Make it clear at the beginning of the message why you are writing. There is nothing worse for the recipient than having to wade through a long message to get to the point. Worse, if you send long messages, it is much less likely that the person will act on what you have sent or respond to it. It’s just too much work. It often gets set aside and, unfortunately, forgotten.
- Don’t discuss multiple subjects in a single message. If you need to discuss more than one subject, send multiple e-mails. This makes it easy to scan subject lines later to find the message you need. It also contributes to briefer e-mail messages and a greater likelihood of a response. Also, the more specific you can be about your subject heading, the better.
- Reply in a timely manner. I don’t think e-mail demands an instantaneous response. I have written about this elsewhere. Responding once or twice a day is sufficient, unless you are in sales, customer service, tech support, or some other field where a faster response is expected. Regardless, you must reply in a timely manner, otherwise you will incrementally damage your reputation and decrease your effectiveness.
- Be mindful of your tone. Unlike face-to-face meetings or even phone calls, those who read your e-mail messages don’t have the benefit of your pitch, tone, inflection, or other non-verbal cues. As a result, you need to be careful about your tone. Sarcasm is especially dangerous. If something gets “lost in translation,” you risk offending the other party. The more matter-of-fact you can be, the better.
- Don’t use e-mail to criticize others. E-mail is a terrific way to commend someone or praise them. It is not an appropriate medium for criticism. Chances are, you will simply offend the other person, and they will miss your point. These kinds of conversations are usually better handled face-to-face or, if necessary, over the phone. Especially, don’t use e-mail to criticize a third party. E-mail messages live forever. They are easily forwarded. You can create a firestorm of conflict if you are not careful. Trust me, I’ve done it myself more than once.
- Don’t reply in anger. In the heat of the moment, I have written some brilliant replies. I have said things in writing that I would never have the guts to say face-to-face. This is precisely why you should never ever fire off an e-mail in anger. They almost never serve their purpose or your long-term interests. They burn up relationships faster than just about anything you can do. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and write the message, then delete it. Usually a day or two after you didn’t send an angry e-mail, you’ll understand the wisdom of restraint.
- Don’t overuse “reply to all.” Last week I received an e-mail from someone who needed to know my shirt-size for a golf tournament. He sent the e-mail to about ten or twelve people. No problem with that. However, some of the recipients, hit the “reply all” key (out of habit, I am sure) and sent their shirt size to everyone on the list. This, of course, just adds more clutter to everyone’s already unwieldily inbox. Your default response should be to reply only to the sender. Before you reply to everyone, make sure that everyone needs to know.
- Don’t forward chain letters. These can be forgiven when they are from your mother, but they only add clutter in the workplace. Nine times out of ten, the information is bogus. It is often urban legend. If you feel you absolutely must pass it on, please make sure that it is valid information. If in doubt, check it out at Snopes.com, a Web site devoted to tracking urban legends and rumors.
- Don’t “copy up” as a means of coercion. It’s one thing to copy someone’s boss as a courtesy. I do this whenever I am making an assignment to someone who is not a direct report. (I don’t want their boss to think I am going around them, but I also don’t want to bog my communication down in bureaucratic red tape.) But it is not a good idea to do this as a subtle—or not-so subtle—form of coercion. You may be tempted to do this when you don’t get a response to an earlier request. But I would suggest that you will be better served to pick up the phone and call the person. If they are not responding to your e-mails, try a different communications strategy.
- Don’t overuse the “high priority” flag. Most e-mail programs allow you to set the priority of the message. “High priority” should be reserved for messages that are truly urgent. If you use it for every message (as one person I know does), you will simply be ignored. It’s like the boy who cried “wolf” one too many times.
- Don’t write in ALL CAPS. This is the digital equivalent of shouting. Besides ALL CAPS are harder to read (as anyone in advertising will tell you.)
- Don’t send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks. If you do so, you can put yourself or your company at risk. You could be sued for simply passing something along, even if you aren’t the original author.
- Remember that company e-mail isn’t private. You have no legal protection. Anyone with sufficient authority or access can monitor your conversations on company-owned servers. If you need to communicate privately, then get a free account at GMail. Use it for anything personal or private.
- Use a signature with your contact information. This is a courtesy for those receiving your messages. It also cuts down on e-mail messages, since people don’t have to send a second or third e-mail asking for your phone number or mailing address.
- Provide “if-then” options. This is another tip I picked up from Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week. He says to provide options to avoid the back and forth of single option messages. For example, “If you have completed the assignment, then please confirm that via e-mail. If not, then please estimate when you expect to finish.” Or, “I can meet at 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. Will one of those times work? If not, would you please reply with three times that would work for you?”
- Use your spell-checker. I take my correspondence seriously. It reflects on me. As a publishing executive, I think the bar is even higher. If I misspell words, use bad grammar or punctuation, then I think it reflects negatively on me and my company. Lapses in grammar or punctuation can be forgiven. But misspelled words are just too easy to correct. That’s why God gave us spell-checkers. Make sure yours is turned on.
- Re-read your e-mail before you send it. I try to do this with every single message. My fingers have difficulty keeping up with my brain. It is not unusual for me to drop a word or two as I am racing to transcribe a thought. Therefore, it’s a good idea to re-read your messages and make sure that you are communicating clearly and observing good e-mail etiquette.
Don’t discuss multiple subjects in a single message. Instead, send multiple e-mails.
Don’t reply in anger. It almost never serves your purpose or long-term interests.
Remember that company e-mail isn’t private. You have no legal protection.
If you have other e-mail etiquette suggestions, please post a comment at the end of this post. If there’s something that drives you crazy, I’d like to hear about that as well. Most of us, I’m sure have ideas that can make e-mail a more civilized, effective tool for communication.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Coming from a younger generation (30something), I find that Gen X-Y often use email as a lazy means of communication. Rather than picking up the phone to accomplish an important task in 2-3 minutes, we’ll go back and forth for days; leaving the task unresolved and ultimately frustrated by the unfinished business. So to add:
Evaluate the best method of communication
Don’t assume that email is always the best method. Determine if the communication would be better served by phone or face-to-face.
AMEN!
How about …
#19 … You don’t have to reply to an email with an email. If it is more effective, call the person and talk through the issues raised in the email. And if you find that you are emailing back-and-forth with someone trying to come to closure on a topic, pick up the phone and resolve it in real time.
Well there you go … I should have refreshed the page before posting … Kyle and I are in agreement on this one!
A couple more for you:
Avoid typing everything in lower case. It makes the emails hard to read and just looks unprofessional and sloppy.
Use read receipts sparingly. I’ve received emails for birthday parties with read receipts! A while back there was a newspaper article that mentioned how a woman sent out a general email announcing something to the work population. She had read receipt turned on, as well as delete receipt, and the destination receipt. That amount of email crashed that server.
And a couple personal pet peeves:
Tell the person you’re emailing what you want them to do. I routinely get email cc’d to me where the sender wants me to do something for them, but spends the email talking to the addresses in the “to” line. I then have to ask if it’s a call for action or did they mean a person with a similar name.
If you’re coordinating something, such as a meeting, please provide all the pertinent information up front (i.e., date, time/time zone, what you need done). I can’t tell you the number of times when I get something like “Can you support this?” and there’s a thread of ten emails I have to wade through to figure out what they’re talking about. Especially with meeting coordinations where multiple dates are discussed, it can be quite confusing.
If dealing with multiple meetings with the same time, put an identifier in the subject line to help the receipient figure out at a glance which is which. It’s not hard to say “Sales Meeting with George” or “Sales Meeting with Philly” and will greatly save on confusion.
Thank you for this clear and comprehensive list.
I’m a high school teacher, and I’ve received scathing E-mails from parents, things I’m certain they would not say to me personally. For some, their anger is diluted by their inattention to spelling, usage, mechanics, and clarity. Reading these, however, often helps me understand why their students are struggling.
Besides some of the rules for copying others, many of the rules you listed should also apply to bloggers and the posts they produce. Bloggers do not like rules (reberls that they are), so perhaps we could term them “suggestions”.
My only addition to your list would be to exercise extreme prejudice for adding attachments to an e-mail, particularly if it is going out to several people, a whole department or the company list(!). You may think that that 2 MB flash cartoon or Powerpoint presentation isn’t all that big, but when it’s multiplied many times over then it can bring down the system.
It’s also aggravating to have to wait for your e-mails to download because someone decided to include attachments of, say, 10 MB or more. Most companies have shared folders on networks set up for use by everyone with an account, though some folks think it’s easier to attach large files to an e-mail rather than copying a file to the network folder.
I’ve been well served by remembering another email rule that one of my mentors noted. Rick’s Rule of Three is that if there are three emails (email, response, response to the response), then pick up the phone or use your feet to go across the hall (or in the next cubicle).
This can be an addendum to Kyle and Mark’s responses on alternate communication strategies.
1. Use the Subject line for the whole message, when the message is short. Include (End of Message) in the Subject Line, so the person will know it isn’t necessary to open up the email.
2. Put a lot of effort into writing the Subject: think of yourself as a newspaper reporter, writing an important headline. Include “tip off” words like ACTION, INFO, REQUEST to help the reader categorize the email.
3. Read “The Hamster Revolution” which is a pleasant little read, with some great tips!
4. If you use Outlook, there are lots of tips that can help you to be more efficient. I share mine with the people I work with, through my website… Quick example: drag and drop an email from the Inbox onto the Calendar or Task icon and it magically becomes converted into a Calendar or Task. Oh, and my new favorite: Right-click on any email in your Inbox and select “Create Rule” which gives you a prefilled shortcut to create an email rule. Much less confusing than the full-blown Rules Wizard!
Great post! I would like to forward it to all those who annoy me with endless forwards, poor grammar, and emails that take the long, slow route to the point. Instead, I will just hold my own email activity to a higher standard. Thanks!
Please do not use acronyms. You may understand the meaning but other readers may not. Just this morning, I received an e-mail with “JC” for the title of a book and had to spend extra time to determine the title so I could complete the task. And may I please add an “amen” to the suggestion of telephone numbers and addresses.
In addition to number 2 above, Keep Messages Brief and to the Point, I would add that if I must send a long email (sometimes necessary to document an event/situation) I will always put in either the subject, or the first line, “LONG EMAIL ALERT!!!”. I will then explain WHY it is a long email. This lets the person know up front what they are dealing with. Especially in the days of Blackberry and PDA where reading long emails are cumbersome. At least you have documented what you needed, but let the receiver know up front that they are wading through a long email and why. Better yet, if the explanation is very long, just write it up in Word and attach it and keep the email short.
One of my own is, please, get rid of the cute fonts and stationery. One of the best moves our company ever made was to standardize the look and feel of email. I’m not one to stifle creativity, but most of these things have no place at work. Save it for your personal email.
Hey Mike — All great points. And well-written, as always. I too have learned to proof my emails before pushing “send.” But I go one step further. My late mother was a professional proof reader. She taught me to read copy outloud when proofing….your ears will often catch something your eyes have missed. — Carl Thompson
Hey Mike — All great points. And well-written, as always. I too have learned to proof my emails before pushing “send.” But I go one step further. My late mother was a professional proof reader. She taught me to read copy outloud when proofing….your ears will often catch something your eyes have missed. — Carl Thompson
Mike:
When I receive an e-mail marked “urgent,” it almost never is. It’s bizarre, but if there were a group of e-mails I could routinely delete without reading . . . it’s the “urgent” ones.
Larry
One of my biggest pet peeves has to do with forwards. My company will often send out a corporate email to the all-hands list, then a program manager will forward that email to the same all-hands list “in case you didn’t get this, then the Department Head will forward the same email back to the same all-hands list “in case you didn’t get this”. Often another layer or two of management feels compelled to forward the same email down to their organizational levels for the same reason. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I often have to delete the same email five or six times! Please, if you’re in the habit of forwarding announcement for “FYI” reasons, pay attention to which lists you’re forwarding to and which people are already on those lists.
A well thought-out list and some equally thoughtful comments. When tasked with improving email etiquette for a large Fortune 500 company in New York I surveyed various groups on their email pet peeves and came up with The 7 Deadly Sins of Email, a short article on the subject. The number one deadly sin of email we decided was a poor subject line, which I believe Roseanne mentioned above.
In addition, I found that many people didn’t really understand the use of BCC. You can explain it, but folks don’t trust using it – it makes you look ’sneaky’. However, it can be very useful. I’m about to post a short article on using bcc on Tetsou.
My last comment is that you can’t improve email use in isolation – it has to be part of group learning experience. This is because the majority of email you receive is usually from a small, select group of individuals which comprise your immediate circle of influence. You may be surpised to learn that most of your email probably stems from those people sitting just a paperclip away.
Life can be funny that way!
Tetsou
http://www.tetsou.co.uk
Thank you for your article and addendum posts – my question:
If not all caps to focus attention, then what?
e.g., In clarifying processes, I want to emphasize solutions to common mistakes without using: “PLEASE NOTE,”, in all caps, which you say comes across as yelling at my team.
This is difficult when some team members insist on receiving plain text messaging, only.
Thank you,
Lynn
Lynn,
Generally, bold is used for subheads and italics are used for emphasis. (This is how it is done in books, for example.) If you are using plain text, you can surround the word or phrase with *asterisks.*
Mike
Excellent suggestions Mike! However, I think I would add near the top of the list: Learn how to use your e-mail client. Know what all those bells and whistles do. Knowing how the e-mail utilities such as CC, BCC, Reply to All, Urgent, etc. is the first step to sending professional, effective e-mails. I think a lot of the etiquette mistakes we see, have more to do with individual’s not knowing the ins and outs of their e-mail service than anything else.
And, to stay professional, don’t SHOUT unless you have to, and avoid all the little instant message shortcuts and emoticons, LOL :o(
You have another enthusiastic reader! Hope that was brief enough to pass the e-mail “test.”
A Tip on sending attachments.
When sending one or ten attachments, give your reader the key points or highlights of the attachment. This should be no more then 5 points per attachment.
Gains: Time savings and gratitude from your readers
Great post, Mike! Especially how email can be misunderstood so easily. I’ve gotten emails from people who are normally so sweet in person but they come across brusque and rude in email. I work extra hard to overcome that effect. Emoticons like :-) help as long as they’re not overused.
Your suggestion about only one topic is great! I’ve noticed that often only one thing in an email is answered, then I have to email again asking the same question. I’ll put two or three in one email thinking it would be better for recipient but your way is much better.
How about two more email etiquette suggestions for a round 20? 6, 7, and 13 sort of get at these, but obliquely.
19. Never forward an email in which a person is telling you information intended only for you. Especially, don’t forward an email in which someone has expressed anger or frustration or other strong feelings about a certain person or situation. You may offend the person you are forwarding to as well as the original email sender.
20. Never write anything in an email that you wouldn’t want forwarded. Period.
I see it as unkind & uneccesary to research an e mail discovering it as urban legend then forwarding an ammendment to addresses whom you do not know & embarrassing the sender. To care that one takes in false info. & enlighten a close friend is perhaps a concerned gesture – but to forward a correction only humiliates the sender & screams know it all. Just don’t pass it on & if it strikes you as that important, send a simple FYI in the most pleasant way to just the sender himself & let him/her know you discovered this as not the case in their original mail. (The sugar vs. vinegar theory.)
I would also like to contribute regarding what I call ‘Thank you’ emails and the like.
When I respond to a question or provide information in an email I do not wish to open yet another email to read ‘Thank you’.
- Adds to the email clutter.
- Adds more email traffic to the corporate email server.
- Disrupts my concentration if I’m working on something complex.
Analogy: Would you spend the postage on a thank you letter if someone mailed you the same information?
In a previous company when email first became the primary corporate message medium I remember not sending ‘Thanks You’ messages as a company policy.
It seems to me people interpret BCC in various ways. When I BCC someone, I’m trying to tell them: “FYI… this is between you and me… and I don’t expect you to respond”. Invariably, the BCC recipient does a reply-all. There should be a rule against that, I think. What do you think Mike?
@Kenneth: Yes, I think we need to be very careful with BCCs. I occasionally use it, but very sparingly and only with people that I trust not to “reply all.“
I only use bcc when I want my boss to know something important was sent, for example, to confirm that a deadline was met.
Michael
A great article. I would like to remind people in my own organisation about good email etiquette – not just what our policy is. Do you mind if I use some of your suggestions – with an appropriate citation, of course.
@Terry: Yes. You are welcome to do so. Thanks.
Thanks Michael.
Our thoughts have moved on a little. Our plan now is to use our intranet to give people some advice on good practice – using many of the suggestions in your article. We are then having a quiz based on good practice and some questions about our email usage – volume of traffic, storage space required etc with some small prizes. This way we are are hoping to get some buy in and awareness and a bit of fun.
What about emails that are used in all bold fonts?
@Katie: Emails in all bold or all caps are the equivalent of shouting. They are definitely a no-no. Thanks.
Thank you for the tips.
I have a specific query – which I hope you will help me out with.
I get email inquiries from customers, asking for a price quote. They would have cc’d that email to a few other people – I assume their superiors in the organization. In most cases, I do not know them.
Is it appropriate to reply to the sender only, with the price quote? Or should I ‘Reply to All’ ?
@Mudit: I would “reply all,” since the sender elected to include them in the conversation. Thanks.
What about excessive punctuation? I really hate it when people send me email and there’s about twenty five thousand exclaimation points at the end of a sentence.
1-Be brief and to the point right off the bat.
2-Re-read after a cooling-down waiting period.
3-Never express anger in the written word.
I received an e-mail written in all red letters. The first thing that came to mind was, Is the sender mad at me? Is this an accurate response or was I reading too much into it.
I think this article is way to long if you want anyone to see it you shoud make it more exiting
While I do not mind receiving some, as in a few, forwarded messages, I do mind getting such messages which have been forwarded several times with all of the email addresses of people I do not know.
I do not particularly want my address amongst them, offering it to who knows to start spam to my address.
Perhaps this is how my address became attached to messages which have nothing whatsoever to do with me -like invitations to meetings in a town about 3000 miles away fom where I live.
My point is first learn how to copy the content of a message you want to send to some one (not “ones”) without all of the addresses it was sent to previously. It is not that difficult to cut and paste.
Second, please do not add all of those addresses shown in a forwarded message to your own email list. If you do not know who those people are, you have no business adding them to your own “To:” list, period.
It is rather lazy practice to forward messages with a string of recipients blurted out before the message even appears.
I just read that emails to someone you don’t know should be addressed like a letter, such as:
Dear Mr. Hyatt:
Is this the correct form?
Sincerely,
Suzie
I try to be polite and concise, but I don’t use salutations and closings. I appreciate your advice.
@Suzie: I am not that formal. I address people I don’t know with the appropriate honorific (e.g., “Mr,” “Ms,” etc.) and their last time, but I do not use “Dear.” Thanks.
what do i do when a manager reads my email that i sent to them but will no answer and i HAVE to get the answer from them.
If your boss asks you to send out an email from him/her (which he/she wrote) should you send it out from your bosses computer and sign his/her name, or should you send it out from your own computer and sign your name “on behalf of your boss?”
I’ve saved myself trouble by getting into the habit of adding the destination address last, after proofing, after attaching items, right before hitting send. No more missing attachments. No more accidental half-baked emails.
I´m really surprised with the fact that the e-mail is actually a MAIL.
I agree with Rosie on Forwarded emails. Sometimes they are forwarded so many times you have to scroll down for several minutes to find the original email. Also I have gotten put on email lists of people in that email with nothing to do but send jokes all day long, or are involved in discussions I do not care to take part in and yet – there I am stuck. Forwarding an email is lazy and not responsible as well as disrespectful.
I had always heard that if you mention someone in an e-mail, you should always copy that person…but researching this rule I do not find it discussed in any of the etiquette websites. Especially if you are only referring to someone and of course if you are not saying anything bad about that person, shouldn’t they be on copy?
As an English educator, I am very diligent of e-mail "rules." My question has to do with replies; I think it is common courtesy for a boss, or anyone to reply to an e-mail, even if it is only to say, "Thank you for your idea, observation, question, or whatever." My boss replies to few or no e-mails, especially to those with which he doesn't agree. Is it professional to just ignore respectful e-mails from staff?
I think that good leadership requires that people be acknowledged. They do matter. So, yes, I always try to reply, even if only to acknowledge that I received the email.
One concern I've not seen listed yet is people who use their business e-mail for personal matters. This is really a bad idea, especially in the current economy. If you get fired/downsized/laid-off your computer access will likely be cut off while you are being informed. (It's happened to me and I've seen it happen to others.) Do you really want to be trying to get a new e-mail address and distributing it to your friends and other contacts on top of dealing with the repercussions of a job loss? There's really no excuse–it is too easy to get free e-mail. Find out how if you don't know.
The above also ignores the fact that some companies might take a dim view of employees using their company account for personal business. You certainly don't want e-mail to be the reason you got fired.