E-mail Pitfalls

Perils and Pitfalls of Corporate Email

Richard D. Parker, Ph.D

Senior Consultant

How often at work have you received an email, perhaps a humorous story or a joke of the day from someone and then without thinking, forwarded the email to other people you know both inside and outside of your company?

If you answered never or seldom, then you are in a distinct minority of people who understand the purpose of email at work and probably use it responsibly. Email has become so common that in many cases it has replaced the telephone as the preferred medium of communication in 21st century Corporate America. But people often use email without thinking about its potential impact on business.

I taught a course in business communication several years ago and the topic of email usage was one that always raised some eyebrows among my students. Email in the workplace is supposed to be a legitimate communication tool used in successfully accomplishing tasks that will help a company in reaching its goals. Many people in today’s workplace sometimes forget (or are simply unaware) of this important concept.

An email address consists of a user identification (typically a person’s name or initials), an “@” sign, a domain name and an extension (such as .com). The domain name and the extension are often taken for granted, yet arguably may be the most important parts of an email address. A .com extension is designated for commercial ventures, although .biz and .net are also used for businesses. But it is the domain name that really matters to most organizations, because the domain name is readily identifiable with a company, institution, firm or non-profit organization. So what’s the point of this lesson regarding the construction of an email address?

Billions of email messages are sent everyday around the world. As a form of business communication, messages sent from companies always reflect back on the organization first and the sender second. The principle of company representation was well-recognized in the days when letters were the primary instrument of business communication. Most writers of business letters recognized that what they were saying in a letter was a reflection of their company first and themselves second. Perhaps this was helped by the presence of a company letterhead and the fact that a person had to hand sign a letter before putting the message in an envelope with the company name and address printed in the upper left-hand corner. Yet today in many businesses this recognition of company first seems to have been lost on many email users.

Managers can help their employees to better use email as an effective business communication tool by remembering a few simple tips. First of all, spelling, grammar, punctuation and word choice, or diction, all still count in the 21st century. Many young people entering the work force today are used to simple cell phone text messages where letters and numbers have replaced words. For instance a common text message a college student may send to a friend might be “R U 4 pizza 2nite?”

These shortcuts in the English language have been quickly adopted as common usage and therefore assumed to be correct. And young people who use these short cuts often continue using them even after finishing school and entering the workforce. One of the first reflections on a company’s image is how its employees communicate with key internal and external constituents. Misspelled words, poor grammar and short cuts can have a negative effect on perceived image both inside and outside of a company.

Second, when writing email if at all possible avoid jargon, acronyms or other language that may be confusing to people not familiar with a situation, product or service. When I worked in financial services, we always talked about PTFs in our communications. One day I sent an email to one of our clients in Boston informing her that the next PTF would be ready for downloading later in the week. She emailed me back a few minutes later to say that would be fine. She then emailed me shortly thereafter to ask what PTF stood for. I knew what a PTF was and so did she, but neither one of us had any idea what the letters stood for. I offered to check with one of our programmers and get back to her. It turned out that no one I talked with directly knew what PTF stood for because the person who created the acronym had left the company several years earlier. The end result was that we, as a company, looked a little foolish for using an acronym that no one could properly define.

Third, email users expect rapid communications. That includes replies to sent email messages. If someone in your company receives an email, reads it, and then leaves it in his or her inbox without responding, the sender of the email may be left with a very poor impression of your organization. Businesses who answer email messages quickly often gain in positive reputation and image. Failing to respond quickly to an email message can often leave a negative impression with a sender that they are unimportant, his or her problem is not critical to the recipient of the message or worst of all, the company just doesn’t care. Responding quickly to email communications is not only a reflection of good customer service, it’s also a responsible business practice. Even if you do not have an immediate answer to someone’s problem, a simple acknowledgement that you received the email and will get back to them is better than no response at all.

Finally, it never hurts to remind people that when they are using the company’s email system, they are acting as a representative of your organization. Some companies don’t mind if employees send personal emails on company email accounts, but emails carry legal weight and have often been used as evidence in civil cases against businesses. Corporate legal departments have plenty of reasons why personal emails should not be sent on company accounts. After all, it’s not just the company’s email address (with matching domain name!) it’s usually the company’s network, computer and time on which many messages are sent. This is why many companies monitor their employees’ email messages on corporate accounts.

While a little humor is often good for the soul (and the workplace) remembering that work email should primarily be used for business purposes not only helps with productivity, but can also enhance corporate image and possibly keep your business away from potential problems down the road.

The VMP Group, LLC Phone:501.952.0530

Vision -- Mission -- Performance