Business correspondence is an integral part of any business. With the development of technology, it has become much easier – there is email. Now you can report all information in two clicks and get an answer just as quickly. E-mail is a simple and convenient tool for communication. But like any tool, in the wrong hands, it can turn into a terrible weapon for “blowing” people’s brains out.
I’m talking about people who use email as a chat room, people who think they’re too busy to think, “Will the recipient be comfortable reading what I wrote, will he understand everything from the first time or will I have to exchange 20 emails?” I’m talking about lazy, supposedly super busy people.
Sure, when you pay money for a job, the doer will patiently pry all the information out of you, even if you write 1 word per letter. But time and mutual respect will be lost, which will be bad for the work and further cooperation.
Unfortunately, the lack of respect in business correspondence is the norm now. But almost every letter is filled with pseudo-respect.
Because of such letters delivery of projects is delayed, there are misunderstandings and conflicts between the customer and the executor. And it’s all about laziness, laziness to think about the other person, put yourself in his place and look at your letter through his eyes.
We’d like to share with you a short list of “deadly” sins of business correspondence:
A letter without a subject – it cannot be found in the list of letters, it is not clear at first sight the importance and urgency (if it’s burning – always call, write in messenger mail is not for urgent tasks). If you want your letter to go without attention – do not specify the subject. Gmail will even let you know if it’s off topic, so you don’t forget to put a subject line.
Signing “Thanks in advance” is pure manipulation (great book on manipulation). Such a signature complicates the rejection, for most people it is difficult to say “no”, and with such a postscript as it is not real. In the short term you get what you want, the man will do as you say, but his attitude toward you very much spoiled.
Auxiliary materials right away – clear links to the file with the size (if a person is roaming on the mobile Internet), screenshots in the body of the letter, but not a separate link, so that you don’t have to go to another window. It should be convenient to access the material from the letter.
Carelessness – with grammatical and spelling mistakes, no greeting, the name written with a small letter. Immediately you feel irritated by the disregard for the reader.
The mistake in the name is the sweetest sound to a person is the sound of his name. If you mix it up, the person will feel very uncomfortable.
Without specifics, the letter is not structured – the essence of the letter is blurred, it is not immediately clear what the person wants from you, when and why. There is no division into paragraphs by meaning.
The use of the following phrases – “Good afternoon. “How are you?”, “Needed yesterday”, “ASAP/ASAP”, “Five minutes”, “Urgent”. And the most cruel – thank you in a separate letter – is suitable for chat, but not for mail, because the recipient will notify he will be distracted, open the letter, I think that there is important information. Phrases have no meaning, but take up space and time the reader.
I forgot to attach the file – do not forget!!! Almost all mailers already if they see the word “file” in the body of the email, they tell you about it so you won’t forget to attach it.
Adding more than 2 recipients to the letter – when you do this, all hell breaks loose and it begins to swallow all the recipients when every participant starts to respond. Remember: if there are more than 2 recipients in an email, it’s more effective to call or meet to discuss the problem.
Evaluate the work, not the person – not “you’re a bad developer” and “this is a bad site,” but “I’m not comfortable using” and “I don’t understand how to do this.”
The “Polite Letter” checklist:
- One letter, one thing to do
- Specify the subject line of the letter.
- Be specific about the urgency – include dates
- The essence in the first paragraph
- Supporting materials at once
- Complicated – break it down