I write a lot of emails. Every day. Sometimes they are
to complete strangers I’d like to do business with. Sometimes they are to
people I know really well. Sometimes people I know not so well. Sometimes I am
responding to a reader of my blog or someone who wrote me a note just to say
how much they loved my novel. Sometimes I am asking for something.
I’m not one to let my inbox pile up. It goes back to my
early days in sales when I was taught to act on a phone call or letter
immediately because it could mean money. It was a way to build relationships.
My response time made the statement that I cared, enough to not let them wait.
It was a chance to make an impression. Like the clothes you wear, the choices
you make in hairstyle and eyeglasses, the way you shake someone’s hand when you
meet them for the first time, I was taught this was a window to my personality
and a barometer for whether they might want to do business with me.
We don’t have a lot of chances to make impressions into
today’s virtual world. Email is one of those opportunities and yet so many throw it away. They use it carelessly, never considering the message they are sending is also one about who they are. Think about it.
- We use texting symbols like u instead of spelling out
the whole word and forget that spell check does not know if you meant here or
hear.
- We ignore people we have never met as though they are something that got
caught in the spam filter.
- We ignore people we know because we are too busy to
deal with them or their issue. We accidentally hit reply all when we only
wanted one person to receive our message.
- We write like we speak, often off the
cuff and without forethought, forgetting we are putting this in writing without
any idea on whose desk it might ultimately land. Then we wonder how we got into
so much trouble.
- We let it pile up until we really are too busy to get through
it all.
- We lie and say we never got it, underestimating the sender who has
already started to notice that you are the only one who never gets anything
they send.
- We wait just long enough to answer to imply to the sender they are
really not that important.
Before email, we relied on the telephone or perhaps a
letter typed on real paper that was proofread for typos and put into an
envelope with a stamp on it. Of course now we worry about killing trees, and the telephone, well that is so yesterday. But making an impression is not.
How you respond to my email tell me about who
you are and how you do business.
- A high level executive for a major corporation who
emails me back the same day or even forwards my email to one of her
lieutenants with a copy to me,
tells me that person stays on top of their business and probably their life. It
also insinuates that they really care enough about their company to know that I
might have something worthwhile to share. I might be wanting them to buy
something from me, but I am also a potential customer for them.
- The newly minted best-selling author whose talk I
attend and write a complimentary follow-up email who takes exactly one year to
reply thank-you to me says scattered and thoughtless and makes me wonder why
they are even bothering now. They missed their opportunity to gain a repeat
customer for their next book.(this is a true story!)
- The friend who takes days to reply to my email, but
then harasses me with texts and phone calls when I don’t immediately respond
to theirs implies self-importance.
- There is the person who disappears in the middle of the
email thread. That’s like hanging up the phone on me in the middle of a
conversation.
I could go on but, I have email to answer. Just remember whether this is business you or personal you, your
email habits are a statement of who you are. The question is, what impression do you want to leave?
Tomorrow: 9 Tips for Using Email
