Welcome to 2017! It’s a year when being an expert communicator will be more important than ever. That’s because people are so used to connecting with each other via social media that they can easily sniff out the difference between someone who is reputable and someone who isn’t up to snuff. And, in the business world, this is more important than ever! The ways in which the buying public views your brand will have a lot to do with how you personally communicate.
Naturally, there are many different ways that you can communicate with your clients, colleagues and customers. At MeloTel, we provide North American business owners with top-of-the-line cloud-hosted communication tools such as our Commercial Phone Services that help them to communicate better than ever before. Of course, people don’t just communicate over the phone anymore. E-mail is a popular communication source in today’s world.
However, not all e-mails are created equally. In a recent stand up routine, comedian Jerry Seinfeld jokingly commented upon the fact that the word “mail” should be removed from the word “e-mail” completely as the online communication source doesn’t even remotely resemble the archaic practice of shipping a letter to an individual in a far off distance. And, perhaps, this is one of the reasons why so many have slacked in their professionalism when sending e-mails.
What forms of e-mail etiquette are necessary to maintain your brand’s professional reputation? Firstly, it’s pretty important to avoid slang terms and short forms. Many people use text messaging and e-mailing interchangeably and therefore use such short forms as “4 U” instead of “for you”. This would be a business no-no. No matter who you are e-mailing from your business account, it’s wise to maintain a sense of professionalism in the ways in which you compose your sentences. And yes, spelling counts!
Proper e-mail etiquette also dictates that you respond in a timely fashion. This is another major difference between the electronic and the traditional form of mail. Letters often take days and even weeks to arrive, depending on where they are being delivered. So response times are generally pretty slow. With e-mails, you know that your recipients are receiving them practically instantaneously. Responses are expected within short time frames.
As a business owner, it’s important that you respond to your e-mails promptly. Generally speaking, within about 24 to 48 hours is acceptable. However, if the e-mail is of an urgent nature, it makes sense to speed up your reply. You’ll also want to be clear in your subject headings. This is an integral part of professional business e-mails. If the subject of your e-mail changes during the thread, it’s wise to change the subject heading.
This greatly improves your ability to organize your conversations so that you can relocate them, if necessary. Sometimes, e-mail threads become convoluted with numerous messages about various topics and this can cause some important points to get lost in the process. You’ll find that your recipients will greatly appreciate your approach to clarity. And, as always, this looks favourably upon your brand.
At MeloTel, we also offer Domain, E-Mail & Web Hosting services that establish a Fortune 500 configuration for even the smallest of businesses. We do not share IPs and all communications are protected by encrypted SSL certificates for both incoming and outgoing mail. No matter the size of your business, you can rely on our high-performance world class network and our state of the art data centres supported by MeloTel.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
