Darryl and I were having a conversation about communication and the generations. Like I have somewhat eluded to on this website we have been dealing with a company and one of the people there needs a list of "rules" when it comes to e-mail. Darryl and I both prefer to use e-mail, you can answer it when you like, reference in the future. Many people refer to it as a generational thing. I am a "millennial" and so sometimes we have trouble communicating with X'ers or Boomers. I am also below thirty which this article makes reference to so that may be part of it as well.
For this person that we have been dealing with who doesn't use e-mail often here is my e-mail rules. I would love to send it to him, but that would be a little preumpustious. With the rules: do you agree or am I crazy, any extra I should add?
1. E-mail should be short and to the point. I even have trouble with the "small chat" that usually becomes at the beginning of a conversation. When I write e-mails I like to give the direct information not, hi how are you, how's your day...
2. If your e-mail is going to be longer then 2 paragraphs then call me instead it will be fast for both of us. Most people in my generation don't mind talking on the phone we just want to do what is fastest. Unless of course you are sending it to more then one person, then e-mail is still the best.
3. If your e-mail is going to be lengthy, but it still is the most time efficient, be sure it's easy to read: use bullets, paragraphs etc.
4. I agree with the article if I get someone's voice mail. I'll hang up and send them an e-mail instead.
5. Use spell and grammar check. Which I'm sure my mother is groaning about right now, and even though I'm not perfect at it, I still try. Unless you are sending from a blackberry be sure to capitalize what needs to be. If you are not using Firefox 2.0 it is the greatest for spell check.
What about you, any other rules?
Till tomorrow
Jenn
3 comments:
Sometimes if you ask more than one question in an email, you won't get an answer to each one, even though you were hoping to. Sometimes it's best with just a couple questions to send these as two emails.
Or, if you have a lot of questions, as Jenn said, bullet them, and request specifically that you want them all answered.
Another one, Write good subject lines! Writing, "hey there" in a subject line, then asking important questions in the email is frustrating if you have to look up the email later. Create a 2 to 7 word subject that gets right to the point of the subject of the email. If you have more subjects, send more emails. Keeps things separated in the responses ... and if on the receiving end, don't answer both emails received in one of them, you're crossing the subjects and just adding confusion to the conversation and the later retrieval.
This subject brings to mind the converstaions that we had twenty some years ago about voice mail. Although we call them answering machines. Some people loved it and others hated it. As time went on it became much more accepted and I have even heard people comment on how much they hate it when someone doesn't have voice mail.
There certainly many different ways to communicate today and I think if often depends on someones personality. I for one as many of you know prefer to talk on the phone or face to face especially with those close to me. If its some big news or really important information I would rather hear it from the individual either on the phone or voice mail. I though I think that email is appropriate when you are just looking for some information or asking some very specific question. The problem is that not everyone check there emails on a daily basis. With all the advertising and forwards that go on it is sometimes easy to miss something importat. I agree with Darryl that having a proper subject line is important. It certainly is an interesting topic for discussion.
I am all for email as I can't stand chatting on the phone - especially if I have been at work all day long.
What drives me nuts, is whether the email is of the work kind or personal kind, DO NOT TEXT LINGO ME!! That drives me absolutely insane. I can't tell you how many emails that I have received in the professional manner such as resume submissions or inquiries (I work in HR) that people try to use text messaging or abbreviations. It is truly shocking really.
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