Good email habits

Got this article from Cleo, October 2008.

Just like face to face communication, it's important to be courteous while corresponding on email too. Here are some things you should avoid doing if you don't want to give yourself a bad reputation.

1. Don't forget to use the subject space.
Doing so helps people to read it now or later. Also, change the subject line if you change the thread topic. Lengthy email threads quickly become confusing especially when there are many recipients and everyone is replying at different times.

>> The funny thing is, sometimes the clients tend to forward us emails of THEIR correspondences with THEIR other clients/vendors. Good, then I can know what has transpired between them. :P

2. Don't spam.
'Nuff said. And especially NOT to work emails. It's rude to flood others' inbox with forwarded chain letters and jokes.

>> I think this depends on the content of the email. Inspirational emails are good to send. If I'm doing this, I always "bcc" the recipients and left the "To" & "cc" space empty. Nobody knows who am I sending the email to. :P

3. Don't forget to re-read your email.
Be careful as you are often judged by your typos. No one is perfect but you can eliminate 99% of these mistakes by re-reading.

>> C'mon, sure must re-read emails before sending lerrr... especially emails to clients. Common sense. o_O

4. Don't write when you are angry.
Calm down before you send a hate email because there's no undoing what's been said. If need be, ask someone to edit. Avoid using UPPERCASE too as it means that you are yelling.

>> Hohoho... I sent one hate email before and the result was devastating because the recipient replied to all in the loop. Ah well, learnt from mistake. Nowadays, I toned down sarcasm a lot whenever I reply emails although sometimes I still add in a bit of sarcasm, whenever needed.

I think should add number 5. Don't send to wrong recipients. Meaning, please check the recipient box before sending the email. Especially if your client's name is the same as another client's but who works in another company. Or worse, if your colleague's name is the same as one of your friend's name who works in another rival company. Imagine if you send a confidential company/project proposal to that person. Oh-uh. And yeah, whenever I receive emails that are not supposed to be sent to me, I'll reply back to alert the sender. It doesn't hurt to help in this way.