Email...

[semperfiona]

Yet another exciting three hours of Customer Service Training this afternoon. Today's episode: Email and Forums.

I am at odds with one of the big things they kept reiterating, and I'm curious about the views of my Loyal Readership.

Copied from the manual:

Email Rule: Creating an email is much like writing a letter. You need: An opening The body of the email A polite close

It has always been my belief that email requires neither a salutation nor a closing because the names of the addressee and sender are right there in the header; I liken email to verbal conversation. To some degree I do use greetings, especially when the email is a new start to a conversation or I haven't communicated with the recipient in a long time, but only on the first one in a thread, very-rarely-to-never on a reply, and I don't generally sign them unless to add other contact information.

Am I obliviously rude in this regard, or are they being backward and old-fashioned?

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

For business email, I always address the person that I expect a response from. If it is to a group, I omit the salutation. In my business mail, I had at most three lines to convey my information, the person's name was one of those lines. If I could leave it off, I did. I always close with my name. The salutation and close make it easier to follow conversations as the email gets forwarded and commented on over the lifespan of the issue addressed.

I would say that it is workplace specific culture how formal the emails need to be. I worked at one place where everything was done by voicemail, email was very informal. In another place, the opposite was true. Most places are not so stark in their approach, but the corporate atmosphere and culture will define what is appropriate.