Email etiquette is vital to your success. We only get one chance to meet someone for the first time and “WOW” them with our products and/or services, so, it’s important to really put your best foot forward when composing an email to a customer, client, vendor or potential business partner.
With advances in technology, we are no longer limited to meeting prospective customers, clients, or referral partners face-to-face like we used to. Technology now allows us to meet these same prospects via email, phone, or our websites.
With these advances, and the ever increasing fast-paced world that we live in, are we sacrificing good old fashioned common sense etiquette protocols?
- Are we still making a good first impression?
- Are we identifying ourselves as professionals?
- Are we clearly stating the reason for our contact?
- Are we being clear and concise about the purpose of our inquiry – whether it’s a support question, or a request for additional information?
We all use email every day – it’s a fast and effective means of communication, but it’s cold, impersonal, unclear, and used ineffectively. It lacks the interpersonal contact of the traditional way of meeting someone.
Email is also the source of many viruses, and is frequently used by spammers, so we should all pay close attention to how our email is perceived by the person receiving it.
Email messages are surprisingly permanent, take a good look through the contents of your Inbox, and you just might be surprised to see just how old some of these messages are. Would you have kept a paper inter-office memo or letter of inquiry for that long? Probably not. The really worrying part of this is, that most people give very little thought to the content of an email message, even though it might linger around for years.