2.11 Email etiquette

2. CUSTOMER SERVICE

Ensure all employees send appropriate, concise, and professional emails to customers and colleagues

Scope:

2.1 – 2.11; 10.6

Related Documents:

2.11 Email etiquette

Purpose: Bateel Boutique emails should be used only for professional correspondence. To ensure appropriate and professional communication with your colleagues, managers and customers, make sure to follow the steps below.

Procedure for email communication:

 Include a clear, direct subject line, avoid vague subject lines.

 Use a professional email address only.

 Be cautious with “Reply All” .

 Keep your tone professional, use professional greetings, e.g., “Dear Khalid , ” .

 Use an introduction, “Hope you are doing well” , “Hope this email finds you well” , “Hope you are well” .  Practice good grammar and avoid abbreviations. Outlook needs to be set up to automatically spellcheck emails.

 Proofread. Double- check the spelling of the recipient’s name an d email address.

 Use proper email punctuation. Avoid ALL CAPS, exclamation points (!) and slang.

 Keep your tone professional. Avoid negativity, sarcasm, and adjectives. Be careful using humor.

 Leave the right impression with your email sign-off. Every employee must use their own signature.

 Read the email twice before sending.

 Check your emails for file attachment before sending.

 Set up informative out of office replies (applies to the managers).

 If the subject is complex and many people need to provide input, it may be more effective to discuss it over the phone or during a conference call with all necessary participants.  If the subject is personal and possibly emotionally sensitive, meet face-to-face if you can or at least make a call to the individual concerned.

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 When sending large attachments or manuals within your team or the company, use a shared drive or Wetransfer.com

Appearance of text:

 Do not use ‘ALL CAPS’ when writing, it is the email equivalent of shouting at someone .

 Use plain text email unless you need to attach pictures or use different text colours

 Plain text messages are light and delivered quickly.

 When using HTML messages, avoid fancy fonts and layouts to ensure your message looks the same at the other end.  Do not send unnecessary logos or embedded objects in your message. This wastes processing time and resources for replication through the mail system. Also, your message might be misclassified as junk, leading to a reservation, confirmation or catering proposal not being received by a customer.

Emails addressed to multiple recipients:

 ‘TO’ should include all those who will need to take action or follow up on your email.

 ‘CC’ should only include those who really need to be informed but do not necessarily need to take action based on your email. Do not CC someone’s manager on problems immediately . First address a complaint directly to that person and only escalate to their manager if no solution is found.  ‘BCC’ should be avoided at all costs, as it appears devious and can backfire against b oth sender and recipient.  Do not automatically select ‘Reply ALL’. Carefully consider whether everyone who was included in the original message needs to see your response. Often, the CC list can be shortened. If you do reply to several people, make sure it is clear who should take action on which parts of your message, otherwise everyone will think it is someone else’s job .  You can set up shared address books and mailing lists in Outlook for those you contact on a regular basis.

 Do not CC customers in internal communication with other departments.

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