Email viruses often make headlines. They waste time and energy, and cause great distress to people all around the world. Could anything be worse? Yes, what about the damage caused every day by taking email for granted? The familiarity and convenience of email is resulting in sloppy, careless habits that could ruin your business and reputation as surely as any email virus.
Electronic mail is having a phenomenal effect on the way we communicate. It is not just a quick, easy and cheap way to keep in touch with family and friends. It has also become an essential tool in business. However the explosive growth of email has created new problems, mainly because there has never been a definitive guide to common standards and expectations. Consequently systems are overloaded, communication is rampant, reputations are damaged, feelings hurt and time wasted.
One of the main advantages of email is speed, but the pressure of coping with an ever-increasing mailbox is adding to the pressures people face. Messages are sent without much thought or planning, with important details missing, spelling and punctuation errors, and abbreviations that some people don't like or understand. Some messages look as if they are written in code. People are even neglecting the common courtesies of a greeting and sign-off for the sake of speed.
High on the list of annoyances when I did some research recently was unfriendly tone. Emotions are hard to convey in emails, and some people type out exactly what they would say without thinking of the tone of voice that would be used to signal their emotions. Without the right tone, misunderstandings could easily happen, or you could offend and lose an important business contact - or even friend. Good writers learn to choose words carefully and get the tone right.
Email and information overload is another serious problem, with some managers receiving hundreds of messages daily. But if we are suffering from overflowing inboxes, how much of it is self-inflicted? Do we send lots of messages just because we can? We must learn to use email more thoughtfully by recognising when we should and should not send messages. If you receive lots of messages that you don't really need to see, tell the authors. And tell your friends not to send those jokes and personal messages to your work email address. Then there's that prolonged email exchange - wouldn't it be better to pick up the phone? Email overload is contributing to a decline in oral communication skills -people send emails to the person in the next office rather than walk a few steps.
People are receiving poorly formatted messages, poorly structured messages, emails written in capitals (equivalent to SHOUTING) or all in lower case, and with poor grammar, spelling and punctuation. Someone told me: "When I receive a sloppy message, I think the writer has no respect for me because he/she couldn't take just one minute to check it through and tidy it up."
I completely agree. The internet has made it possible for us to communicate with people from all over the world. The only way those people can form an opinion of us is by looking at the way we write. Your credibility could be ruined with one swift click of the 'send' button.
Today's way of conducting business is informal so that's what we should aim for in our business writing too - natural, relaxed, friendly, conversational. The only place for standard boring overused cliches like "Please find attached herewith", "I am writing to inform you", "Please be advised", is the recycle bin. Busy businessmen and women haven't got time to plough through loads of old-fashioned, long-winded jargon. Nor should they be subjected to abbreviated, coded, sloppy messages that are full of errors. We should take just as much care in composing email messages as we should with formal letters, memos or faxes. We should use short words and simple expressions, short sentences and short paragraphs that are clear and concise but still courteous. We should take pride in composing effective messages that are structured logically.
If you want to improve your electronic rapport with customers and colleagues, if you want to improve your credibility and productivity - remember it's not a computer you are talking to, it's a real live human being. As one contributor to my book is quoted as saying: "Don't let your email turn into an e-NAIL in your business coffin."
• Shirley Taylor's latest book, Guide to Effective E-mail, has just been published in Singapore by TransQuest Asia Publishers .
