Kind regards? Or is it 'Best'?
How to charm with email
etiquette
We pinpoint the five most common
email mistakes – and suggest how to avoid them
www.theguardian.com
Friday 11 September 201502.00 EDT
Last
modified on Friday 11 September 201508.35 EDT
My email to the tech startup about
the app I was using to manage my time hadn’t been a complaint – far from it.
I’d actually written to tell them how pleased I was with their software. “I’m
really impressed,” I’d said. “If you ever need a testimonial for your
marketing, just say the word.”
Yet the response was as cold as it
was perfunctory. They simply said they would bear that in mind. That was that.
It was a small thing but they turned
a raving fan into someone who, if not exactly disgruntled, would think twice
about recommending them to friends and colleagues. Subconsciously, my love for
their product began to lose its lustre and when the time came round to renew my
subscription, I didn’t.
Clumsy handling of positive feedback
is perhaps the least obvious way to mess up an email to a customer – even
though it risks losing you the people you most want to keep, those who will
spread the word for you.
Email can
often be an inefficient medium. And this is made worse by the fact that we
write messages as if the recipient was privy to our thought processes – or at
least the facial expressions they’d see if we were speaking to them in person.
But there is a lot you can do to
keep the convenience of email while minimizing the risks. Here is my list of
the five most common email mistakes businesses make – and how you can avoid
them:
1
Fail to match the customer’s tone
As my example shows, failing to
respond in kind jars. If someone is informal and friendly in their email, reply
in the same tone. After all, if a customer greets you in person with a friendly
smile, you reciprocate. Likewise, if they adopt a more formal approach, match
it.
2
Leave out the salutation
Call me sensitive, but I always feel
a little knocked back if I address someone with a “Hi [name]” or “Dear …”, only
to get a reply starting simply with “Rob”. Email is a hybrid of the memo and
the phone call. As such, we’re still not quite sure what conventions to adopt,
but politeness should be a given. Similarly, it’s safest to address customers
the way they address you.
How you sign off is equally
important , so don’t be in too much of a hurry to add your name and press send.
Again, match the customer’s tone and level of formality. “Kind regards” or
“Best regards” are both good. But if they’ve written “cheers”, so can you. If you’re
writing the first email and you’ve never spoken to the customer before, start
off fairly formally – you can always adopt a chattier tone later if they do.
I must admit, I’m puzzled by the
rise of signing off with just “Best”. Best what? It makes me wonder what the
recipient does with the time they save by leaving their sign-off half finished.
3
Write like a robot
Remember, email is just another way
to communicate with a fellow human being. You still need to strive for some
kind of connection. Writing an email is a lot more than getting something off
your to-do list. It’s a human connection to someone spending their money with
you.
4
Write them a novel
Emails that run to three screens
seldom get the response the writer wants. At best, they confuse matters; at
worst, they’re ignored. Keep to one screen if you can.
In fact, email is not always the
best way to communicate complex issues. Next time you find yourself agonising
over a message for half an hour, try picking up the phone.
5
Reply in haste (especially if you’re angry)
We’ve all had them: snot-o-grams
that a customer appears to have bashed out with their fists. Yet one advantage
email has over other forms of communication is that it allows you time to think
before responding.
The disadvantages are that it’s
permanent and easy to share, so responding in kind to an angry email will
seldom end well. It could be all over social media in minutes. Yet it can still
be tempting – especially as smartphones allow us to receive such messages at
what could be a bad time. Resist the temptation and flag the message, close
your email or laptop and do something else. Better a slow reply than a quick
one that you instantly regret sending.
Given the list of ways to get it
wrong, you could be forgiven for thinking that sending customer emails is a
minefield. It can be. Many people get it wrong, but by following this advice,
you can at least make sure that you’re not one.
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