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

[rm.livejournal.com]

People I have previously communicated with? No opening.

In a business context, always a closing, although I usually just use "Thanks!"

email

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

it depends. for casual email i still use a greeting, but drop the polite close (if sending flurries of email back and forth i dont use a greeting either, and don't even sign them).

for business email i use both, and basically treat the email as if it were a letter. mainly i do so because many (more traditional) people grant an email somewhat less weight than a paper letter, and i want to counteract that.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

In a business email, I include salutation and closing. In a personal email, I sometimes leave off the salutation - as you say, it's right there at the top. It also gives a little too much gravity to the email - sort of a 'listen up, you, this is important.'

Always sign an email. I use my initials, all three because otherwise I'd be signing everything "ed".

[maiabee8.livejournal.com]

For business emails I always include a greeting and a close as I would in a paper letter. Business emails are electronic letters not conversations in my line of work.

For emails to friends they're either letter-emails (as in communicating specific information for a specific purpose) and carry an opening and close or they're unformal conversation style emails that only carry an opening and close sometimes, when I feel like it or when it is appropriate.

I have been emailing and iming since adolescence and it often grates me when older folks* try and send me conversation style, informal emails in a business setting because it makes them look like they are 'talking down' to me or that they have poor manners/no sense of business appropriateness or that they are idiots trying to be "hip" and looking like fools, or some combination of the above. It is very rarely appropriate and in those cases it doesn't bother me, but only very rarely.

Generally, I think you are better off erring on the side of too formal for business communication. At least at first.

*Older folks here defined as anyone who has not been emailing since adolescence, defined as you will.

[neeuqdrazil.livejournal.com]

In business emails, like many folks above, I use a greeting (usually "Hi $NAME") and a closing (usually "Thanks, $MYNAME").

In personal emails, I occasionally use a greeting, and usually sign with just my initial.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I'll usually include a salutation and closing in business emails.

I think the salutation is particularly important. Business emails often get copied to several people, and/or forwarded on to others. A salutation helps the reader keep straight whether they are being addresses directly or copied. Yes, it's all very clear in the header -- but the header is up there, a whole centimeter above the body of the letter, and easily overlooked by a busy person just scanning through a backlog of emails.

I think a close is necessary in business emails as well, mostly because with all the forwarding that sometimes happens it also helps make it easy to tell who said what.

[eternaleponine.livejournal.com]

In a business setting, unless it's someone that you have already have an established relationship with (such as a close co-worker or a direct manager), I think your work manual is absolutely correct. Usually my greetings are just "Hello" but when I sign it, it's usually, "Thank you" and then my name and title and extension. I know a lot of my co-workers have that info set up as an automatic signature to save themselves the trouble.

[lapis-lazuli615.livejournal.com]

As I spent 3 years working online, primarily through email, I probably am more formal than most. I tend to use a greeting, even if it's just the person's name, and I usually sign with at least my initial.

For work, it depends on whether it is someone I email regularly or less regularly. The less regular or one-off emails I am more formal with - almost 9th-grade-typing-class-business-letter formal.

Also, I put equal paragraph spacing all the way through the email, including after the greeting and before the closure. My work email automatically adds a signature to every email with my name and all of my contact information. It's just easier that way.

[jilly-bear.livejournal.com]

I was a bit shocked (as were some others in my group) about the no emoticons. Granted, if you smiley up the entire email it's pretty unproffessional looking but to add a smiley to emphasis your happiness or just to express delight is not so terrible... I didn't think.

I have little use for most of these customer service sessions anyway - I would rather be doing just about anything but unfortunately they are required. They take up so much time that I really don't have to give up - 30 emails while I was gone all about various CRs that I really should have been working on instead of debating emoticons!

As far as the opening.body.closing - I don't plan on changing anything. I use them when I feel they are needed and I don't when they aren't. I don't converse with outside contacts anyway - just all us inside folk. :)

[morgaath.livejournal.com]

For a business topic, I treat it as a letter. I know there is a good chance that it will get forwarded 87 times by people who just write "FYI".

If there is more then one person on the e-mail, address by name the people who need to take an action. Do not expect them to know that you are talking directly at them just because their name it in the To: line and not the CC: line. This is a hard learned CYA technique.
"It says right here 'Jane, please contact the customer and tell them we can't do it till they sign the contract'. What part of that didn't you understand, Jane?"

For daily BSing "Wanna do lunch?" is enough.

In other words, make the style match the topic and audience.

[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.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

For business, or anything remotely like business, I always use a greeting and a closing and sign it with at least my initials. A huge reason I use a greeting is because the tone of the email can be construed as being terse/rude sans greeting. Now, if it is email being used like IM (where do you want to do to lunch? I don't know, you? How about the sandwich shop down the street? OK.) then I can skip the greeting and closing. However, for anything else, yes I firmly believe it needs a greeting and a closing. This becomes very important when email is forwarded around and when addressed to multiple people. I always include the names of the people I *need* to read the email in the greeting to be sure they know it is not a random CC and make sure to call out action items with the name of the person they concern. Also, I really hate it when people just use my name and no "Hi" or "hello" or "Hey". It sounds angry and rude to me, even if that is not the intent.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I'm now working in customer support. Initial e-mails to customers go out with a greeting and a closing. When we start interleaving responses, then I just use a relevant (not empty) closing.

I'm not going to read the other comments...

[leenoox.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to pronounce, ex-cathedra.

I got my first email account in 1983; you decide what you think of my opinions. :-)

I tend to take the same approach you do, taking into account the context in which I think the recipient will receive my mail.

How often you originate threads of conversation with the person is one issue, how well you know them another -- those with whom you work directly and your friends you can be informal with; people at your own company with whom you don't work directly you should be a little bit more formal with, and if you're writing to someone who's never heard from you before, all the fancies of a "real" letter are called for *on the first message*... you can back off to suit in extensions of a thread, whether anyone's mail client actually threads or not.

Your mail program should be applying your 'signature' (actually an address block) for you, and it should automatically precede it with SIGDASHES (hyphen, hyphen, space, newline) so other people's mailers have a hope of knowing where it starts.

As for a complimentary close, again; depends on the context, but blindly applying the "always do everything in every message" rule clearly was a policy written by someone who reads his email on paper printed out by his secretary, and can't type.

Do what you do, and if they make noises about even writing you up for it, start shopping.