E-mail Etiquette

John Slatem

Oakleigh Computers
East Dorset Business Club
Canford Magna Golf Club
Tuesday, 2nd February 2010

www.ocs.me.uk
E-mail Etiquette
 
Why should we consider Etiquette in this informal world?

E-mail affords the opportunity for quick, simple, easy, direct to the point communication, so why is
Etiquette so important or necessary and what are the rules?

Meaning of the word

•Oxford Dictionary:- the code of polite behaviour in a society

•Wikipedia:- is a code of behaviour that delineates expectations for social behaviour

according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social
class, or group

•Netiquette:- A huge amount of content and links.

Etiquette and it’s application in relation to e-mail and technology

 

Companies have still not realised how important e-mail communications are.

 
Your company spends a great deal of money creating an image and first impressions
count, e-mail is no different.

 
This impression extends to the “domain” name that you chose for your e-mail address.

 
You wouldn’t expect to see Marks and Spencer , BusinessLink or your suppliers use a
Vodafone, Tiscali or BT Internet address so why try and save £50 per year?

 
If you had the choice of buying from pete@psp-plumbing.co.uk or
pete.smith@yahoo.com, which one would you choose?
 Many companies send e-mail replies late or not at all, or send replies that do
not actually answer the questions you asked.

If your company is able to deal professionally with e-mail, this will provide
you with that all important competitive edge.

Moreover by educating employees as to what can and cannot be said in an

e-mail, you can protect your company.

'By requiring employees to use appropriate, businesslike language in all electronic

communications, employers can limit their liability risks and improve the overall
effectiveness of the organization's e-mail and Internet copy in the process' -
Excerpt from 'Writing Effective E-mail', by Nancy Flynn and Tom Flynn
.
“People use e-mails in a careless way” - Prof John Beddington, UK Gov
Chief Scientific Advisor Thursday 29th January 2010

Setting a code of practice within your business sends out a message to your
customers and partners, sets the rules for your employees and therefore
improves productivity and gives you a competitive edge.
 There are many Etiquette guides and many different rules. Some will differ according to the
nature of your business and the corporate culture. Below I list what I consider as the most
important e-mail Etiquette rules (but not in any order)

If you reply to the e-mail then change the subject line to match the content of your reply.
This was from a major supplier
Hi.Everyone,

I hope you dont mind me contacting you again.

I am hoping you are all aware of the new version of NotifySync For Blackberry
version 4.7, which has many enhancements.
Many of our resellers have purchased and the feedback, is very encouraging.
 
Please click on the Link below. 
This is from a very satisfied reseller, who have now put a Blog on there website.
They explain, the difficulties they have been having with BES, and how
NotifySync the trusted alternative, has come to the rescue, and enhanced there
portfolio.
They mention three main factors, which are, cost savings over BES,Easier to Install
and Manage,and UK Support. 
 
To take a free 14 Day trial of Version 4.7,please click on the Link below.
Enhancements include Sharing of Blackberry Calenders and Lots More.
I am your main contact at London Web, if I can be of any further assistance to
yourselves, please do not hestitite to contact me.
In 2007, the United States Department of Homeland Security used large CC lists in place of a mailing list to
broadcast messages to several hundred users.

Misuse of the "reply to all" caused the number of responses to that message to quickly expand to some 2 million
messages, bringing down their mail server.

Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message.
Using the cc: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message.

Also, when responding to a cc: message, should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as well?

This will depend on the situation. In general, do not include the person in the cc: field unless you have a particular
reason for wanting this person to see your response. Again, make sure that this person will know why they are
receiving a copy.

More importantly the cc: field can be seen by all recipients and can be copied and used without your knowledge or
permission.

Placing them into the bcc: box avoids this.

In fact try not to use it at all

Think about whom you want to include in your reply and select them or
manually type their names.

Here is a good example of the correct use of To:, CC: and Bcc:.

Note that I was a recipient but you can’t see my name

Until it ended up with this!
When sending an e-mail mailing, some people place all the e-mail addresses in the To:
field.

There are several drawbacks to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent
the same message to a large number of recipients, (2) you are publicising someone else's
e-mail address without their permission, (3) some spamcheckers or ISP’s block this kind
of mailing.

One way to get round this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field and send the To: to
yourself. If you have Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and create
one message for each recipient.

There are very good Mail programmes available on the Net.

If you cannot see the Bcc box, depending on your version of software click View and
choose All Headers, Show Bcc or simply click the CC box and select your recipients
Beware of what you attach – they can host viruses.
By sending large attachments you can annoy customers and even bring down
their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to compress attachments
(“zipping”) and only send attachments when they are productive.

Moreover, you need to have a good virus scanner in place since your
customers will not be very happy if you send them documents full of viruses!

The size of the attachments – generally accept 5mb as the maximum.

Remember that a typical picture can be over 2Mb!
Oakleigh Computer Services
8 Brabourne Ave
Ferndown
Dorset. BH22 9EJ
(Callers by appointment only)
Tel: 01202 875224. Mob: 07889 137155 
www.oakleighcomputers.co.uk
"Work smarter not harder with Oakleigh Computers Help Desk Support"
Oakleigh Computer Services is the trading name of Oakleigh Computer Consultancy Ltd.
Registered in England No.4608890.

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Oakleigh Computers have a strict policy of using up-to-date virus and malware checkers
but due to the nature of the Internet you are advised to run your own checks.
 John Slatem

Oakleigh Computers