On average, office workers spend a quarter of working time on checking email and answering letters.
But have you known that the wrong-written letter can hurt your reputation, decrease your income and even get you fired?
JiJi offers you to find out how to manage with the letters. Let’s start!
1. Write the letter topic briefly
People often decide whether to read a letter according to its topic. The examples of good themes are: “The date of meeting changed” or “Additions to your suggestion” and so on. If you choose the wrong name for the letter, there is a great probability it will get lost in the vast quantity of other letters with more relevant topics. Be precise!
2. Use only the corporate email
If you work for a company, most of them have domain name and site, so your name is connected to it via email (like @gmail.com). It will show that you are unreliable when you use emails like babygirl or something like that while writing a formal letter. These kinds of email are good for personal affairs, but not for managing business.
3. Think twice before pressing the button “Answer to All”
Nobody wants to read the letters which are irrelevant to them. Therefore, if you received the letter from the mass communication and you desire to answer to the sender, other participants of the conversation shouldn’t be engaged in your discussion. So choose the receiver carefully.
4. Use only formal appeals
Regardless of how good you know the person, when you are within your workplace, use only his/her formal name, especially in interpersonal communication. Leave out phrases like “Hey!” or “dude”, and use only formal worlds like “Dear Sir or Madam” and so on. Show that you’re professional!
5. Use the exclamation mark prudently
The excessive use of exclamation mark is quite bad, because your partner may think that you are too emotional and immature to conduct business. Use it only in dire need – for instance, to emphasize something important.
6. Be careful with the humour
The problem is obvious – you can be misunderstood or considered to be unreliable and frivolous. Of course, sometimes a bit of humour is necessary to conduct negotiations, but you should avoid jokes if you aren’t enough familiar with a partner.
7. Different cultures mean different rules
Unfortunately, misperception may occur just because of cultural diversity. Therefore, some business couches recommend to study the culture of the partner you plan to conduct business with, in order to avoid some mistakes. Moreover, being attentive and careful is always valued!
8. Try to answer every letter
It’s a really tough assignment, but try to be careful with every interlocutor. Even if the letter isn’t very important, your efforts will be noticed, and your reputation will be amplified.
9. Check every message
Literacy is a great indicator of person’s competence and professionalism, so don’t rely solely on automatic grammar check. Reread each letter before sending it – let your mail be perfect!
10. Write the receiver’s email just before sending
Everyone of us is familiar with program failures or just mistakes, when you send or receive an unfinished letter. To save yourself from the need to ask for excuse or just waste time on rewriting, write the email of person you send a letter to just before sending a message.
11. Always check email!
The rule is simple – check whether you have typed an email of your partner without mistakes. Be productive!
12. Use the classic, built-in type
If you want to show your originality, writing a formal letter isn’t the right time to do it. Don’t abuse the colour and size of lettering – it may disturb from the current message. The classic types are: Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri, and the size – 10 or 12. Be brief, but accurate.
13. Watch your tone
First of all, always be patient and polite. Use the words “thank you” and “please“. Avoid the harsh words and expressions like “failure”, “wrong” etc. The secret of successful correspondence is that partners use only neutral words.
If you feel not enough confidence in this area, try to think how you would say the same, but with another words. For instance, instead of “You are wrong” you may say “I asked you to do in such a manner, but the misunderstanding occured”.
14. Nothing is confidential!
Have you ever thought that your personal or formal letter would be read by another person or even group of people? The thing is that people often share some information with each other, which means that nothing is private. Furthermore, some hackers may take control of your email, so don’t compromise your partner.
You’ve just read the tips about how to be an effective communicator.
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