Email communication skills are one of the most important skills in working life. Unfortunately, students rarely learn this in schools. Therefore, we should learn and consider this during the working process. In this article, we would like to share with you some basic principles on how to improve your email communication skills:
Email must have a title
The title must be clear, and specify the main subject of the email. For example:
Clearly: Changing business strategy in 2019
Unclear: Business strategy
We should never send an email without a title, which represents a lack of professionalism in communication. Also, please avoid sending emails with generic titles like “Urgent!”, “Important to read immediately”, “Dear Sir, Madam”…
If you want to show the property of that email, you can use the following syntax: [Status] Email title
Example: [Important] Business strategy in 2017
As a result, the email recipient will know the status of this urgent email and will decide whether to read it now, or should spend more time reading it more carefully.
A clear and complete format
Typically, an email consists of 3 components: Greeting, Main content, Thanks and signature. With the main content, you should not write a long paragraph but should line out into small ideas. Each paragraph is a good idea to express your thoughts better. It also helps readers get better information. Besides, you should always take the time to read again your email. This will help you to avoid misspellings, incorrect punctuation or errors. To learn more about the principle of using punctuation, you can search online.
Keep everyone in the loop
This is a business term that tells you that you need to make sure the relevant people get the information they need. We have the CC feature to do this. So when sending an email, you have to consider that in the people you intend to send, is there anyone also need this information?
Use email when you need to exchange important information
We have many different communication channels like Slack, Skype or talk directly … However, with important information, you must send by email. The reason is to avoid misinformation and it will be easier to look up information. You should not use online chat applications such as Slack, Skype, etc. to send important information. There are many different reasons such as the application will automatically delete the message when the limit storage is reached, the recipient of the information may not regularly check these applications. The best way is to communicate important information via email.
Gently remind recipients to reply to your email
You should normally allow the recipient at least 24 hours to process the information and reply to you. In case it is too long to see a reply, you can email again and ask if they receive your email. This is a very gentle reminder. However, in case you need to exchange information urgently and cannot wait for a long time, you should contact the recipient directly (via phone, speak directly) so that the work can be solved as quickly as possible.
“Reply all” if needed
A small tip to improve email communication is to reply all if necessary. When an email has multiple recipients, you need to reply all so everyone can get the information. However, you should use it carefully to avoid sending email to irrelevant people.
Notify that you have received the email
When someone sends you an email, if you find that you can answer within 1 hour, please take the time to answer. In case you are too busy and can handle this email later, send that person an email saying that you have received the email and will arrange a response within that period so that they can patiently wait for you.
Above are some tips that can improve your email communication skills. Let’s apply them and become more professional in your work!
