I, like many of you receive a TON of email each day: some junk, but the majority from our customers. The last few days I began to notice something as we were up against some tight web launch deadlines: I noticed that my emotions were swayed in different directions by the PERCEIVED tone of emails from people. I put together a list of things that drive me nuts when I receive an email:
1.) PLEASE DON’T COMPOSE YOUR EMAILS WITH ALL CAPS!!!! OR USE EXCESSIVE !!!!!! POINTS! Utilizing all caps in an email is akin to yelling at someone. It comes off as a bit hostile in my humble opinion.
2.) Smiley Faces: Don’t have time for them, but thanks for the sentiment.
3.) READ receipts…. Sorry about your luck, you’ll never get one back from me. In fact, it annoyed me so much that I altered my outlook settings to NEVER reply to them.
4.) One of my favorites: setting the priority of your email with the red exclamation mark: Frankly, I don’t put more weight an email with an exclamation mark next to it: it is 9 times out of 10 spam.
5.) Don’t go crazy with the highlighter in your email messages: if your email is that long that you have to highlight the important parts for me, we’re going to have issues. Send a clean pdf or word doc….
6.) Short and sweet: self explanatory.
7.) Plain text is just fine… no need for embedded images, twirlydos, etc.
8.) Remember to be clear and concise with your message: Being overly direct can cause cognitive dissonance on the other end of the email. Remember to still use the manners mom hopefully taught you, please, thank you, etc.
9.) Forwards of forwards of forwards: if you have to forward a document from other people, such as in a dialogue string, etc., take the extra minute and clean out unnecessary stuff: example, email signatures, etc. the end user will thank you.
10.) Work related email: if it’s related to work, send it to the work address: if it’s personal, i.e., joke of the day, etc., send it to the recipients personal email address.
Thanks for reading…. hope you enjoyed!