E for Efficiency (and Email Etiquette)

Efficiency, Focus and Email Etiquette are Keys to Business Success

The fact is that integrating solid Email Etiquette skills into your business communication will help make you a more Efficient communicator. Okay, I won’t bold any more “e”s.

Business contacts you email regularly will undoubtedly appreciate any effort you make to communicate clearly, as it makes doing business with you easier. With the added benefit of helping them be more efficient, too!

Email and Efficiency

I thought about this recently while reviewing my overflowing inbox. I discovered several emails that required me to review previous emails before responding. Requests that had already been answered were re-asked because they didn’t want to look up previous emails. Also included were a few inquiries that were vague at best.

This caused me to dig out my previous replies and resend them to the same individuals. Not sure why they didn’t have their copies.

I also had to reply to some by asking questions for more information. Otherwise, I could not answer with confidence.

A couple of emails required me to weed through previous back-and-forth threads. I had difficulty figuring out what the Sender meant. No clarity to be found.

I thought about how these types of emails make me inefficient. What ran through my mind next? “This will make a great topic for Business Email Etiquette!”

Here are the issues I noted this morning. Issues that made both sides spend more time than necessary on their email communications. These can easily be resolved with just a little thought and effort.

Quick Email Organization Tips

Before responding to an email, order your emails by Sender. This will help you see any subsequent emails from that Sender. This allows you to combine them into just one reply on the same topic. I hate when I forget to do this myself! I respond to one email only to discover subsequent emails from the same Sender. Emails that negate the email I just responded to. Drat! Minimizing the number of emails benefits everyone involved.
Consolidate your thoughts into a single email using a bulleted list, as I am doing here. Sending numerous emails about a single thought, concern, or question wastes unnecessary time for both the Sender and the Recipient to sift through.
Down-editing your replies is the sign of a tech-savvy, skilled communicator. You want to get in the habit of removing what is no longer necessary to the conversation. Only leave what you are specifically replying to so the Recipient knows what your comments correspond to.
Do a quick search in your email program for previous emails that may include the info you are seeking.
Before assuming a request was not acknowledged or that a response was not received, check your junk or spam folders. Add important contacts to your address book or whitelist to ensure your contacts’ emails are not sent to Junk.
When making a request, do your best to include all the information you believe the other side will need to assist you. By providing all the necessary details, you increase your chances of receiving the response you desire.

Quick Steps to Efficiency

These are just a few issues that stood out and cost me time and reduced my efficiency today. Business Email Etiquette helps all involved be more efficient.

And spend less time tapping away at these keyboards! That, in turn, frees us all up to spend more time doing our jobs and running our businesses.

For more email organization tips, here’s a guide to having an easy email organization system.