Thanks, as a closing, and as an exchange wrap up, is overused in business email:

• Do not use “Thank You,” and your name as a signature. Every email you send will not need to convey thanks at the end, so do not automate this.
• If you over-thank, it will soon become meaningless or insincere.

In business, our jobs require that we solve problems. It’s not necessary to thank people for regular work tasks.

At the end of an email exchange, don’t add another email round by thanking someone for doing their job. If thanks is really warranted, make it meaningful. Draft a new email and express brief thanks for the above-the-call-of-duty work, and copy the person’s supervisor.

We’re all deluged with too much email. Save “thank you” for when it really conveys gratitude.

Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact

“Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.”

The author, Jessica Vascellaro,  argues that just-in-time communication, such as Twitter, Facebook, and the upcoming Google Wave offer a constant stream of information. Conversely, email is outdated. It reflects how we used to use the Internet. Log on, do what we need, log off.

Email use is slowing, but it is still by far the dominate communications vehicle in business. Other services are increasing dramatically, but for now, they are not the dominate channel.

Eventually, ideally, we will  choose the best tool for the right task, as real-time communication is more widely adopted in business.

The challenge will be managing a 24/7 information flow.

What do you think? Does email work well for you for your business communication?

The technology marketing research firm Radicati predicts that this year the average office worker will send and receive about 199 emails per day! That is nearly 200 separate messages, each requiring your focus and action. Even if you can quickly delete an email after skimming it, that process requires you to (1) absorb the message, and (2) delete it.

More worrisome for productivity, Radicati also predicts that the average office worker will spend 41% of each work day managing email. Earlier this week, talking with participants in several business writing courses, I listened as they expressed their frustration with the volume of email they receive each day. The higher one rises in an organization, the more email one receives.

Follow these business email productivity tips to control your inbox, and boost your productivity.

Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact

Simply respond, “Let’s discuss over the phone. What is your number and when is a good time to call?”

A wise client who works in the financial services industry in Qatar asked this question, after reading this month’s newsletter:

Sometimes, the verbal discussion leads to a negative result that an official email would not solicit. A discussion is easier, and more off-the-record. For example, when I discuss a customer issue with a colleague before responding to the customer, the resulting answer is often less customer-friendly, since there is no trail or documentation linked to my colleague.

However, if I send the same colleague an official email describing the same case, and stress its urgency and need for a solution, he is more compelled to move and research an answer, before replying to the email officially.

Isn’t email the best forum to ensure a thorough response? What is your opinion?

Great question!

There are two issues here:

1. Stopping convoluted emails from draining your time and muddying communication in your company.
2. Documenting verbal conversations.

Do not feel obliged to stay in email, if you receive a message that is better suited to a conversation. Email is best for straightforward communication. A conversation is far more effective for complex or controversial issues. If it will improve the business communication (always the primary goal) to shift from email to a conversation, do it.

To document the discussion, simply write up a new email and summarize the conversation you had with your colleague. Thank your colleague for his assistance and document the actions you agreed upon. This will:

• Stop the email madness and shift you to a better communications vehicle (in this case, a conversation).
• Document your conversation:
  • Your colleague will be forced to take your request seriously. Your colleague is unprofessional to respond more diligently to an email than a verbal conversation. Since you know he has this proclivity, let him know you will summarize your conversation into an email for “his files.”
  • Write a new, clean email that correctly reflects the issue at hand, and your mutually agreed upon resolution.

You will save time, stop the time drain of trying to resolve an issue in email that is better suited to a discussion, require your colleague to respond thoroughly, and it will be better documented.

Thank you for a smart question!

Business Email Inbox Overload

The task features are very basic, but that’s what I like: it’s simple and easy. You add a task. You check it off. You can also reorder tasks, and indent them to linked tasks to keep order.

When you receive an email that requires action, you add it to your task list in Gmail. Then you archive that email, instead of leaving it in your inbox (always deadly to productivity.) Result: clear inbox!

The email is available for reference when you work on your tasks, but it’s not cluttering your inbox.

SET UP:
In the upper right corner of Gmail, go to Labs, and enable this function.

For Remember the Milk users (like me), there is even now a gadget to integrate this, for free.

Once you read a message, move it to where it needs to go:

• Do not let messages linger in your inbox. Once you read it, either take action or move it. (Here is where Gmail Tasks is so helpful). It’s both depressing and enervating to see accumulating, unanswered messages every time you log in, and the inbox clutter will will cause you to waste time.
• Read more about business email productivity tips.

Gmail’s new tasks function will help keep your email workflow moving. Won’t it be wonderful to see your inbox looking like this?

A Clear Inbox!

Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact

Credit: Google

This feature allows the sender to recall a message, but only within 5 seconds of sending.  It’s useful if you notice that you inadvertently clicked “reply to all” instead of replying to one recipient, or forgot to include an attachment, or notice a typo as the message is sent.

To enable this new function in Gmail, click on “Settings” and then the “Labs” tab.

Gmail labs launched Google Goggles in October, 2008. This feature requires a sender to correctly answer a simple mathematical problem before a late night message is sent, preventing tired (or, possibly, drunk) emailing.

If these features help protect us from ourselves, use them! But don’t forget that shaping email well is a writer requirement that technology cannot replace:

“The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.”

Edward R. Murrow

Read more on the Official GMail blog.

“Just when the caterpillar thought its’ life was over, it became a butterfly.”

While I often tend to agree with these lovely insights theoretically, they don’t belong in a business email. They are distracting from the core message. Business email volume is heavy, and we need to streamline our messages to assist busy readers. This quote offers only unrelated extraneous content, and requires additional valuable reader time – never good practice.

Additionally, there is a grammar error.  Its’ is a grammatical formation that does not exist. The possessive form of its is its. Correct grammar would be, “Just when the caterpillar thought its life was over…” Learn more about using its vs it’s correctly.

This quote is particularly odd for a Human Resources manager, given the huge layoffs occurring across many companies. There is an oblique hint of ending/layoff mentioned, and reminder of this in all business emails is not helpful.

Email signatures can be hugely valuable for marketing, so save signatures for useful information that will drive business, as explained in this research.

How do you feel about inspirational quotes in email signatures, especially in business email?

Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact

Beginning Thursday, January 29, we will remove the “Reply to All” functionality from Microsoft Outlook.

We have noticed that the “Reply to All” functionality results in unnecessary inbox clutter. Beginning Thursday, we will eliminate this function, allowing you to reply only to the sender. Responders who want to copy all can do so by selecting the names or using a distribution list.

Eliminating the “Reply to All” function will:

- Require us to copy only those who need to be involved in an email conversation.

- Reduce non-essential messages in mailboxes, freeing up our time as well as server space.

Clearly, business writers abuse the “Reply to All” function, resulting in unnecessary emails being sent, but this action is extreme, and removes a very useful tool. Every time there is more than one recipient legitimately part of an email message, each will have to be added manually. This will waste much time and no doubt relevant recipients will miss out on needed information.

We can all learn a lesson here, though. If email clutter is so burdensome that a company resorts to this, it reinforces the need to choose our recipients carefully.

Tip:

Cut the Volume: Who Needs to Receive This Message? explains the importance of verifying recipients on the To: and Cc: line. I agree wholeheartedly with Nielsen that business emails are often sent to recipients who don’t need the information, and we need to reduce email volume. However, business people are smart and capable, so a better strategy is to correct offenders, provide information and clarify expectations. Don’t strip a useful tool from an entire organization, and demean the workforce in the process.

What do you think? Was Nielsen right to remove the “Reply to All” function?

Mary Cullen
Instructional Solutions

If the group is small enough – five or less – the very best salutation is to use recipients’ names. This also indicates the message is relevant for all of them.

Dear Carmen, Anita, Sean, James and Roland:

Note: using Dear [title, last name] or [first name] followed by a colon is the preferred salutation for all business salutations in email for formal communication, and is best practice when communicating outside your company on first contact. If your subject is a more personal business issue, such as group congratulations, condolences or thanks, use Dear [title, last name] or [first name] followed by a comma. If you know your recipients very well, you are all in the same company, the subject is light, and your company culture informal, you can also use Hello or Hi [first name], followed by a comma. When in doubt about formality, opt for Dear [title, last name] or [first name] and a colon.

If all your recipients belong to the same group, use its name:

Dear Sales Team:

Dear Profile Committee:

Sometimes, endearing or encouraging group salutations work well, but use discretion with this approach:

Dear Marketing Mavens: (To a marketing group, in a message announcing a new contract, which compliments their ability and skills that earned the contract.)

Dear Road Warriors: (To a sales group that had been traveling non-stop for the past month, with a message announcing the sales results. This salutation works because it sincerely acknowledges their hard work.)

Dear Sales Dudes: (Be judicious using personalized group salutations. A sales rep shared this salutation with me recently, which his sales manager uses for all group messages to the sales team. He told me he “cringes” every time he sees this, which proves the importance of a good salutation. We really can lose a reader at hello.)

If your recipients are in various positions or groups:

Dear Colleagues:

Dear Coworkers:

Ladies: (if all the recipients are women)

Gentlemen: (if all the recipients are men)

“Greetings” as a group salutation is neutral, succinct and not too casual, so always a good choice:

Greetings:

Greetings All:

Summer Greetings: (Suitable for a seasonal group announcement message.)

For more informal business writing, these salutations are warm and engaging:

Hello, everyone:

Hi Team,

Dear Friends:

Dear Readers,

Thanks for your questions. Let me know if you have any comments or want clarification.

Best regards,

Mary

Learn More in This Course: Effective Business Writing Techniques

The advantages of email signatures:

* They offer opportunity for a targeted response to an inquiry
* They are free
* They are easily customized
* They are part of an expected response, so far less likely to be tuned out

Elon University professor Earl Honeycutt and Virginia Tech professor Vince Magnini researched the way global businesses, especially hotels, use sig files (email signatures) to communicate the amenities of their properties. They sent 1200 emails to various hotels requesting information on food services and facilities. Only generic signatures, or none, were appended to the email responses they received.

Their research findings will be published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly this winter in the article, “Sig Files: A Means to Strategically Enhance a Brand’s Position.”

Lessons from this study:

1)  Target your email signatures to your audience:

Do not use a generic signature that reflects your interest. Make sure it reflects the reader’s interest and particular query. For example, a response to a golf vacation inquiry should include an email signature that reflects golf amenities, not bridal services.

Make sure the links lead to the appropriate area of your website (not the home page), where the reader will find more relevant information, such as photos of the golf course, course information, and easy call-to-action information to purchase – in this case, a reservation form.

BEST PRACTICE TIP:

Create 10 or so signatures that cover most of your services. Make sure each links to relevant information and an opportunity to buy. With these created, it’s quick and simple to match and append the appropriate signature to the inquiry.

2)  Keep content relevant and current:

Read and understand the message being received from the client. Honeycutt says one of the worst things a business can do is to send back a message with an email signature that is unrelated to the initial email of the potential client.

While conducting their research, Honeycutt said they received a few emails with signatures in a different language. “It’s such a waste,” he says. “They’re missing a valuable opportunity to get a message back to the client.”

3)  Present the email message in the most accurate, professional way possible. No matter how strong an email signature is, it cannot compensate for a sloppy or inaccurate email message. Do not exaggerate statements made in email signatures.

4)  Enact a policy or set of standards across a company so they consistently and accurately reflect the brand and message.

“It’s easy, it’s cheap,” says Honeycutt.

“You’re not having to pay for this email message and when done correctly it can pull the customer in.”

Earl Honeycutt is a professor of marketing and director of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University. He also serves as the 2008-2009 Distinguished Scholar at Elon, having been lauded for research that has earned peer commendation and respect and who has made significant contributions to his field of study.

Learn More in This Course: Email Essentials: Productivity and Impact