How not to scare customers and partners away: bad habits when writing emails

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Some mistakes that we make when writing emails do not go unnoticed by the addressee. In order not to show yourself as a layman, check out the roughest of them.

At work, many people are literally attacked by a huge number of emails that must be answered. Naturally, it is very difficult to cope with such a volume of tasks and do it competently. However, there are blunders that should really be avoided.

Mastering the basic rules of email etiquette is not necessary to turn your letters into masterpieces of fiction. This is absolutely useless. But if you can get rid of the habits that indicate unprofessionalism, your business will go much better.

What are the most common mistakes when writing email messages?

1. Abuse of the "Urgent" mark

If you act like the boy in the parable who shouted “Wolves! Wolves!”, And put the“Urgent”mark on all letters in a row, then very soon the addressees will stop taking you seriously. When you really need an urgent response, no one will pay attention to this note.

2. Excessive informality

The choice of communication style depends on the quality of the relationship between you and the interlocutor. Excessive informality indicates a lack of professionalism.

Try to be careful with exclamation marks, emoticons, colored text, fancy fonts, internet jargon, and acronyms. They will definitely not help you shape the image of an experienced worker.

Also, pay attention to the fact that some people don't understand acronyms well. Choose the tone of communication with foreigners and other generations especially carefully.

Remember, a business letter must be easy to read. To do this, use the fonts Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, setting the size to 10 or 12 units. When it comes to color, black is the best choice.

3. Too cold tone of communication

At the same time, the addressee should not feel that he is communicating with the robot. Some emails from real people look like they are actually answering machine messages.

If you can see your personality and your enthusiasm from your letter, it will help to form a positive image of you as a business interlocutor in the addressee. The main thing is not to overdo it.

4. Misuse of "Reply All"

Emails are not meant to be a cozy chat. If you are replying to a message that you have forwarded to a group of people, before clicking on the "Send to all" button, make sure that your answer is really interesting and that everyone in this group needs.

5. Forwarding a message without the sender's approval

It's annoying to say the least. Or it can significantly undermine your credibility.

It doesn't matter what you post. You might want to send a message from your boss to a client that mentions that client. Or you cannot resist the temptation to include your colleague in the chain of recipients of an email containing some personal information. In any case, you should not do this without the permission of the sender.

6. Sending blind carbon copies of letters

When you send someone a blind copy of a letter, the interlocutor gets the thought: "And to whom else did you send such a copy?" This creates distrust and creates the feeling that you are hiding something.

If you want to forward an email to someone who shouldn't be in the forwarder, simply copy and paste the text you want into a separate new message.

7. Inaccurate wording of the topic

If you enter something like "This is me", "Hello" or "For your information" in the "Subject" field, this does not give the recipient any idea about the content of the letter. As a result, the chances are high that your message will not even be read.

If you are conducting business correspondence, then the subject of your letter should be short, succinct and accurate. If the recipient immediately understands what you are writing to him, then, most likely, he will read your letter and answer it faster.

8. Misuse of private messages

Jokes, touching stories and motivating quotes are sometimes very appropriate. But in large numbers, they quickly tire the recipient. Don't bombard your coworkers' inboxes with meaningless messages, even if you do it with the best of intentions. Sooner or later, recipients will simply start deleting such letters without reading them.

9. Rough answers

Resist the temptation to express righteous anger towards the addressee in your letter, even if they deserve such a reaction. Even if you've been waiting for your package for a couple of months. Just don't do it. People always remember being rude, and this will badly affect your business image.

Instead, write the message you intended to send to the recipient who made you angry and leave it in your Drafts folder for a couple of days. Then edit it and remove any rude expressions. This way you can demonstrate your professionalism.

10. Familiarity

If you know the recipient of the message very well, sometimes you can afford a couple of nice compliments. But if this is your business partner or client, keep a polite, discreet tone of communication. Completion of a letter like "See you soon!" in this case it would be inappropriate.

11. Using a ridiculous email address

Pretentious, vulgar, or downright ridiculous addresses will attract negative attention from the recipients of your messages. If you cannot part with your [email protected] mailbox, then create a separate account for business correspondence.

12. A large number of typos

Sending messages from your phone does not relieve you of your obligation to check your emails for errors. If you make more than one typo per letter, you will show yourself not on your best side. If you need to send a message on the go, it is very important to review it carefully before sending it.

13. Sending messages early in the morning

Sometimes, when you get up early and feel productive enough, you are tempted to get rid of your business correspondence as soon as possible. However, most recipients pay attention to the time of sending the letter. If you send a message at three o'clock in the morning, then at best you will be considered a workaholic, and at worst, not completely healthy.

If you find inspiration in the middle of the night, just save the letter in drafts and send it during business hours.

14. Composing letters that are too long

Most people just scan messages without reading the text. Consider this when writing your letter. Large blocks of text make it difficult to read, so divide your message into small paragraphs.

Use lists. They will make your letter even more readable. In addition, you can highlight the most important parts of your message in italics or bold.

Avoid these mistakes, and then you can form a good impression of yourself, which will undoubtedly contribute to your career.