Rules For Business Email Communication

Interaction between departments and officials in many companies or enterprises takes place using email.Email is often the standard for internal business communication among company employees. This standard is sometimes even prescribed in internal corporate documents that regulate the rules of work in the company. As a result, you need to be a competent specialist and adhere to several regulations for communication etiquette using emails.

Fill In The Subject Field

In this section, you need to state the whole essence of the message in brief, but in such a way that it reveals the nature of the letter.

For example, a memo about sending on a business trip can be placed in an email. Then, in the heading of the letter, it should be written “Memorandum about sending an employee of such and such on a business trip there and there for such and such a period.”

The email may contain the text of the new regulation, which is sent to several colleagues at once for approval. This should be written in the heading of the letter “Regulations (draft) such and such for approval before “.

The email may contain an order, signed by the head of the enterprise, about work on holidays. Then, in the header of the letter, you can indicate “Order number such and such on the work of employees of the enterprise on holidays and weekends on March 8-10.”

From the header of the email, it should be immediately visible and apparent what this letter is about, what needs to be done with it: read and familiarize yourself, agree or send your comments, approve the proposals sent (if the addressee is a manager with the right to support), etc.

At Work, An Email Box Is Used For Business Communication

Each company has its email, which the employee must use. When registering an electronic mailbox, you should indicate the official’s full name (surname, name, patronymic). Under no circumstances should nicknames and nicknames be used as email address names.

Don’t Use “Reply All” When Sending

Received corporate letters sent to an employee’s email can be addressed to him alone and a whole group of personnel. For example, these can be distributions of orders and orders, texts of documents for collective consideration and approval, appeals to department employees on behalf of the head, and the like.

However, receiving such a letter, addressed to many company employees at once, is not a reason to send a response message simultaneously to the addresses of all recipients of this mailing list, namely using the “Reply to all” email option.

When sending a letter or replying to a letter to several employees of the organization at once, that is, when sending your letter collectively, you need to be sure that all the people on the list should read this information.

It often happens that many of the addressees are entirely irrelevant to the issue under consideration. The sender put them in the mailing list “just because” or “just in case” on the principle of “to be in the know,” while they may not have anything to do with the sent information.

Of course, when you need to inform someone, for example, your immediate supervisor, about sending a letter to another employee, then you should include the manager in the mailing list, but again, not in the “To” field, but the “Cc” field. Then the manager, having received this letter, will immediately understand that it is not addressed to him but sent to him for control, for monitoring, to confirm the action that the employee subordinate to him should have done.

In a word, it is worth respecting the working time of other people.

Eliminate Exclamation Points, Minimize CapsLock

The format of such a message is suitable only for non-professional individuals whose character is based on emotional outbursts. Unfortunately, emotional intelligence often fails company employees in challenging and “nervous” times.

However, capital letters allow you to highlight the “main idea” in some cases. For example, in the heading of a letter sent for approval, you can highlight the preposition and the word “TO APPROVE” in capital letters.

However, here, too, when making such text selections, one should be moderate. You should not send a letter only with a simple heading “TO BE APPROVED.” To agree on what, the question immediately arises. But you can send a letter with a header, for example, “New regulations such and such FOR APPROVAL.” Here, the selection “TO BE APPROVED” will tell the letter’s recipient what he should do with the information received.

One thing is “FOR APPROVAL,” another thing, say, “FOR INFORMATION” or “FOR APPROVAL.” Everything immediately falls into place.

In general, it should be remembered that the text that is typed, for example, with the CapsLock key turned on, consists of CAPITAL LETTERS, and on the Internet, such text is associated with a scream. Why yell at work? Crying is a sign, instead, of weakness, insecurity. You don’t have to do this at all.

Do Not Use Humor And Irony In Messages

Business correspondence should not include humor, as the recipient may misunderstand the spirit in the message, and misunderstandings will arise. And then the recipient will take seriously comic appeals and suggestions. And God forbid, he will, if possible, fulfill what the “joker” suggested. Who will be responsible for what they have done?

It is also not recommended to use irony in business correspondence. The meaning of irony is not always and by no means clear to everyone in email correspondence because there is no live contact with a person, and there is no clarity regarding the direction of irony.

In a word, business correspondence is business correspondence, and its essence does not change if, instead of a formal letter on paper “signed and stamped,” an email format is used. Anyway, the texts of the letters should be verified, restrained, specific, executable, and not have ambiguity or multidirectional interpretation of what is written.

Each Country Has Its Format And Ethics For Writing Emails

Any country has a number of its cultural customs and business negotiation etiquette.

We should address at the beginning of the letter “Dear (s), First Name Patronymic!”, And not “Hi, Bill! How are you?”, as is often the case in the West.

Eastern culture is even more complicated, and it must be known and put into practice in communicating with business partners, remembering that “the East is a delicate matter.”

It is also desirable to finish the letters with a signature that gives the recipient comprehensive information about the sender: full name, position, email address, organization website, contact numbers for communication and other public information. Otherwise, the ending, say, “Greetings, Vasya!”, Can negate all the previous content of the letter.

And even in employees’ internal communication, it is undesirable to send an email without a signature at all or with a simple signature, like, “Vasya.” The recipient of the letter will sooner or later figure out and understand who “Vasya” is in internal correspondence. But why create difficulties for the recipient? Or does he, the letter recipient, have nothing else to do at work, except to “calculate Vasya”?!

And, of course, if we are talking about internal or external correspondence, it is initially recommended to establish personal relationships and establish mutual understanding with the recipient of the letter, if possible.

Live communication, phone communication, video communication, and the like have not yet been canceled or replaced! Suppose an email comes from a person (employee) with whom the letter’s recipient was previously familiar. In that case, such epistolary communication is much simpler and more accessible than when the recipient is entirely unaware of the sender personally.

Don’t Ignore Emails

Each letter should be answered competently and effectively even if the letter’s subject is not related to the work. In the end, you can answer the sender shortly and concisely, “This issue (problem) is not part of my responsibilities, contact somewhere,” or even without specifying where to go to resolve the issue.

Each company has its own rules (whether written or unwritten) when to respond to email. If we take the “average temperature in the hospital,” you need to answer during the working day or within 24 hours.

Usually, no one will wait longer. The problem stated by the sender during this period may disappear, resolve itself, or be resolved otherwise, without the participation of the recipient of the letter.

If you do not respond to emails in time, you can “fall out of the cage,” be among the employees who risk, if not losing their jobs, then, in any case, losing part of their powers and responsibilities .

Following the above recommendations will be easy for you to conduct business correspondence, observing professional ethics.

Also Read: The Influence Of A Corporate Website On The Company’s Image