Did you know that while writing an
email
to many people within the workplace, the addresses have to be in the
hierarchical order? Have you been at the receiving end of the
unforgiving 'Reply All' tab? Or been horrified to see the unfortunate
typo for luck? If you have checked in yes to at least one of the
questions you need to brush up on your
email etiquette.
Stick to the Point
First up, do not make an email longer than it needs to be. Reading an
email is harder than reading printed communications and a long email can
put people off. That's why the structure and layout is very important.
Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. If you have
to make points, number them. Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of
15-20 words. For more tips see Effective Emailing.
Never
attach unnecessary files to the mail. This can be annoying as sometimes
heavy mails can bring down email systems - a surefire deal breaker. If
you have to send attachments, compress them. And send only after vetting
it through a good virus scanner. Also, be aware of the programme that
you are using to send an attachment; the client should have the set up.
Always click 'Reply' over 'New Mail'. It creates the message thread. A
'threadless email' will not provide enough information and you will have
to spend a frustratingly long time to find out the context of the email
in order to deal with it.
Before you Hit Reply The difference between the reply field and the cc field: when someone finds their name in the reply field, it means that the
mail
is intended for them, the cc field is 'for information' only. Think
carefully before deciding who needs to see the mail and who needs to
know 'for information'. And only use the 'Reply to All' if you really
need your message to be seen by each person who received the original
message. Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc:
field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message.
Most corporate mails should carry a disclaimer. As
Michael Chissick, head of internet law at Field
Fisher Waterhouse
says: "The disclaimers added to the end of emails are not legally
binding, but it's always good practice to try and disclaim liability."
It is advisable to add disclaimers to your internal and external mails,
since this can help protect your company from liability.
Consider the following scenario: an employee accidentally forwards a
virus to a client by email. The client decides to sue your company for
damages. If you add a disclaimer at the bottom of every external mail,
saying that the recipient must check each email for viruses and that it
cannot be held liable for any transmitted viruses, this will be of help
to you in court. Or if an employee sues the company for allowing a
racist email to circulate the office. If your company has an email
policy in place and adds an email disclaimer to every mail that states
that employees are expressly required not to make defamatory statements,
you have a good case of proving that the company did everything it
could to prevent offensive emails.
With Regards.Priyank Goel
IBM Student Ambassador.
Speaker of .netChaps.
DCS - VNSGU, MCA Student.