E-mail Etiquette

E-mail has improved the efficiency of companies worldwide.  It is easy to use, totally free & instant. E-mail has also given the option to the companies to be proactive to the changes in the market.

Alas! Despite this, most business schools do not teach e-mail basics even in today’s world. Your E-mail etiquette is absolutely vital to your career growth. Lack of E-mail etiquette is detrimental to the image of your establishment.

I have learned some E-mail basics through many trial & errors & want to share the same with readers of Friendly-Tips.

5 basic tips for better E-mail etiquette

• Type & matter before “To address”: This tip is especially useful when you are working on your Laptop. Since keypads of laptops are ultra sensitive to touch, there is a chance of hitting the “send” key even before you complete your message.  To save you from the embarrassment, it’s best to key in the “send” address after completing the entire message.

• Enable “ Forgotten Attachment Detector” in Gmail : Being of sanguine nature, I spend a lot of time in developing flowery language for the mail. After doing a wonderful job with the message, I often get excited & forget to add the attachment . To my embarrassment, I realize this folly only after hitting the “send all” button. Thankfully, the new version of Gmail has a wonderful tool called “ Forgotten Attachment Detector”. Enable it ! Once enabled, Gmail reminds you whenever you forget an attachment, provided there is a word called “attached” or attachment” in your mail.

This is how you do it step by step.

1. Go to “ settings of Gmail”
2. Select “ labs” option
3. Hit “enable” key at the Forgotten Attachment Detector lab.
4. Save your setting changes.

• Auto spell check: We all know that Gmail does not come with auto spell check option. This means that whenever we send the mail in a hurry, without manually using the spell check option there is a chance for spelling errors to creep in due to oversight. I found a solution to this through Firefox addon. Since that day, I have been using firefox browser to operate Gmail. After enabling the above mentioned option, I can auto check the spellings while typing itself.

Here is the step by step procedure for enabling the auto spell check option.

1. Click https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
2. Select the “Language Support” option.
3. Choose the “dictionary” eg: US English or British English.
4. Press “add to firefox button”
5. Download the addon by selecting the “install now” icon.
6. Restart firefox
7. Now try your Gmail & see the red underline whenever you spell wrong!

• Send word documents in 2003 version: This tip may sound ridiculous to some of you. But not doing so has wasted many precious minutes of mine. We end up sending mails to different countries & different types of clients & suppliers. Some of them may not have 2007 version of windows installed. Why take a chance? spend a few seconds extra to convert the file to 2003 version, especially if you are sending the mail to multiple recipients.

• Avoid “all Caps” option: I had a major misunderstanding with a government official. The last line of my official mail was in capital letters. This offended the official greatly. It was too late before I realized that writing in capital letters is synonymous with shouting. This error resulted in our company losing out on the training contract for government employees.

How I wish these E-mail etiquettes were taught to me at my finishing school ! By the way I am taking the first step towards correcting this wrong. Right now, I am forwarding this article to communication & computer teachers at various schools that I know. I urge you to do the same.

Here are some more articles that you may enjoy

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• Geek Etiquette » Email etiquette 1: Greetings – Used to be that business letters were simple. You (or your secretary) typed them on your manual typewriter, beginning Dear Sir, and followed a simple formula as laid out in various handbooks of business communications. And in completely informal situations, we all know how to use it just fine.
• The etiquette and dangers of signing off an email – An article in The New York Times this weekend draws attention to the importance and dangers of how you sign off your emails. One entrepreneur tells the story of a deal gone bad and of deteriorating email signatures: …