It is rightly said that actions speak louder than words, and yes indeed it is true, but when it comes to writing effective replies to business or customer emails the usage of the appropriate type of words is of more emphasis than the other factors, to communicate your thoughts across, in the right intended manner to derive meaningful results and reach a common state of understanding. In the forthcoming paras, we will discuss on 10 Tips for Writing Effective Business Emails in 2022

Benefits of effective email communication in the workplace:

Writing effective business emails is a key to build lasting healthy relationships with your clients or any other associated stakeholder, without even having made a single in-person visit to them, and this could be believed to be true by looking at the quality of services rendered by many service centers located abroad and effectively resolving the queries of its customers located in India over emails.

It is through the medium of emails that we can share our discontentment, thoughts & reviews with the concerned organizations in an effective manner, and moreover, it serves as evidence of our raised concern that could be taken forward anytime with the respective competent authority on not having received a satisfactory reply despite having placed several requests for being heard.

The concept & emphasis of E-mail marketing have now been deeply understood by organizations and it no longer can stay aloof and ignore the benefits arising out of the adoption of such recent digital methods to stay connected to its customers and various other stakeholders.

Though we have learned about the importance of writing effective business emails in bits, but defining it within a framework of some basic acceptable norms is extremely necessary to derive the actual benefits out of it, else all the efforts put in to write a good business email would go in vain.

This basic framework within which such business emails must entail is known as email etiquettes that is a must to follow to write an effective business email and to depict the spirit of professionalism that you and your organization possess.

These basic etiquettes have a significant impact over the content that is intended to be communicated in the communication process and it specifies the ways and manners in which the appropriately chosen words should be aligned to be sent to the receiver for his/her meaningful positive action in return upon having understood the content in the same manner as it was intended by the sender.

Well, after having understood the emphasis of writing effective business emails and replies to customer emails, here I share with you some tips for writing good professional emails that would indeed help you write effective business emails that would boost your career growth as well.

10 Tips for Writing Effective Business Emails:   

1. Treating the receiver of the email in a respectful manner:

First of all, let’s begin by thinking that how do we wish ourselves to be treated and greeted by others?

Of course in a respectful manner with dignity and with the utmost professionalism, Right?

Likewise before writing business emails or customer replies we need to understand that email communications would be effective only and the desired action upon sending such emails would be possible only if the prospective receiver of the email is greeted with utmost respect and dignity.

Therefore make sure whenever writing business emails or replies to customer emails, always be polite and humble in respecting the other party by choosing an appropriate set of words in the email that does not hurt the sentiments of the receiver nor leads the same in anger or disappointment.

2. Usage of appropriate salutations:

Using appropriate salutations to address the prospective receiver is a must, in a formal business email you can always use salutations like Dear Sir, Dear Madam, or just in case their names are known to you may address them as Dear Mr. ABC, or Dear Mrs. ABC.

In the case of informal communications, you can use salutations like Hi ABC or Hello ABC.

Further, it is advisable to greet the receiver of the email in an appropriate and acceptable manner, for instance: writing “Greetings for the day “right after salutation seems quite professional in the business emails that would leave a good impression over the receiver of the email.

3. Always follow the 3 C’s rule of Effective Communication:

While writing business emails always focus on writing clear, concise, and consistent content.

Let’s just elaborate over the 3 C’s:

Clear

The first and the foremost activity before beginning to write a business email is to be clear in thoughts and ideas that are intended to be passed on to the receiver, the message needs to be crystal clear so that only that information is sent forth that is actually needed to be sent to the receiver, any other irrelevant message that is not associated with the subject matter needs to be eliminated.

Further, it is advisable that usage of technical jargon should be avoided, and also the message should always be written in a simple and easy language that could be easily read by the other party.

Concise

The message in the email needs to be short but descriptive, the choice of words plays an important role here that helps in writing to the point messages. The message should not be too long which is difficult to read and takes too much time for the reader. Hence, keep the message short, to the point, and crisp.

Just a piece of advice– Do not write messages using slang words informal emails as it would seem too unprofessional.

Consistency

Consistency would mean reiterating the important message again reasonable no. of times in the email to stress over the efficacy and significance of the subject matter and also communicating with the receiver of the email on a continuous basis and ensuring that the message is delivered in the complete form and in the actual intended manner through the process of continuous follow-up.

4. Specify the reason for writing the email:

While writing a business email in a professional manner there exists a need to specify the reason that why a particular email is being written and being addressed to him/her, means clearly specify the reason or purpose for writing the email to the prospective email receiver, for instance, you can begin your statement by  “I am writing to you with regard to”, or “this is with reference to our telephonic discussion done” in case you’ve connected through a phone call already over the concerned subject matter.

 Just a piece of advice: It is important to give your short relevant introduction right after greetings are offered to the email recipient, just in case he/she is not familiar with you.

For instance: “I am ABC, a senior sales executive in XYZ corporation and I am writing to you with regard to or the purpose of my email being sent to you is or with reference to our telephonic discussion done”.

5. Maintain your cool &calm:

Even though you’re addressing an email that has been written in an inappropriate and objectionable tone, there is a high need to maintain your cool and calm to handle adverse matters in a more professional and responsible manner. Replying back to the sender of the email in a similar aggressive tone would only make the situation go worse and all the earlier sincere efforts of maintaining lasting and profitable relationships in vain.

Also, an email that has been written in an aggressive manner using inappropriate and objectionable words can work against you and can be used as evidence to bring you down in your professional career.

Therefore always be vigilant and cautious while writing business emails and replies to customers or any other stakeholder of the business.

6. Let’s agree to disagree:

There could be numerous situations where we might not agree on a single point and may have differences in opinion over the same subject matter with others, but such differences should be accepted and even though you may not agree with the same, therefore there could be situations over email communications that there may be differences in viewpoints and at this point, it is wise and completely professional to acknowledge the other party’s different viewpoint and accept the same in a dignified manner to avoid any conflict at a later stage, I am not asking you to abide by the other party’s say, but only to acknowledge the difference in viewpoint.

For instance: “While handling a customer complaint the company executive might know the fact that the product or service delivered is of utmost quality and has been reviewed again to satisfy the customer, but the customer refuses to accept the delivered product or service due to some other notion in mind, then it is important for the company executive to accept that yes the customer has some notion in mind that is creating a problem but as per our internal inquiry everything was found to be fine , in such cases the customer must be replied in an empathetic manner that “we do acknowledge your concern and respect your aspirations, but we have made a thorough special inquiry internally in line to address your esteem concern and found that the product or service delivered is of optimal quality and meets all the quality standards that have been set by our organization, however for your satisfaction we can share the quality inspection report with you if you desire” and if the customer is responded in the similar tone in which he/she has expressed its discontentment then it would only act as a fuel to the wild fire.

7. Rechecking the added attachments to the email:

Always ensure that the right attachment is added along with the email, always recheck that the attachment is right sized, appropriate, and sent to the right recipient of the email. Proofreading is equally important that helps in eliminating the typing errors that are a prerequisite for writing an effective business email.

8. Writing prompt email replies:

Promptly responding to the emails received from customers or any other company stakeholder is a sign of effective professionalism, replying to received emails on a prompt basis gives an indication that the sender of the email is being handled in professional and a serious manner, and it gives a special feeling to the same.

Just a piece of advice: Even if you don’t have an immediate reply to a received email, it would be wise to acknowledge the email at the first and reply and close the email once the working over the same is completed.

For instance: An instant reply to an email received could be “Thanks for your email, and we have noted your concern, we are working over the same and will get back to you shortly once our working is completed”.

9. Email closure:

Closing an email in a professional manner is very important, finally, an email needs to be closed by summarizing the subject matter if required. You may conclude an email by writing “I look forward to hearing from you, or I look forward to meeting you on Monday or any other day as fixed in case in-person meeting is lined”, and finally end the email by writing appropriate closing salutations such as with best regards, yours sincerely, Kind regards, Sincere regards etc.

Well, that’s all-wise pieces of advice that I have to offer to you all so that you are able to write an effective business email to be a successful professional in your life.

Wishing you all the best in your career.  

Also read: Top Personality Development tips, Instincts writing- A soothing therapy

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