email etiquette

Alexa

Alexa

Veteran
how do you normally address people in your emails?

"Hi Jane" "Dear Jane"

Do think it is rude when people just put:

"Jane"

When people don't even start off with a name?

In signing off:

do you think it is not as polite as possible just to do:

"John"

Do you think it is rude to get the "no salutation, this is my message only" email from strangers? people you know really well?

Or are people just to busy to be polite and proper?

just wondering because I got several emails of the above nature this week. some I think I read into toooo much. one in particular will compel me to never to do business with that business in the future.
 
If it's a stranger or new business I always try to be formal/polite...

"Dear John" or "Hello John"

blah, blah, blah...

"Thank you," or "Thanks for your time in this matter,"
John Que

I agree, the non-polite messages from people I don't know normally indicate a form letter or just come off rude. Maybe I'm sensitive but that's how I feel about it :thumbsup:

I approach it as if I were writing an old-school snail-mail letter.
 
I guess it all depends on the relationship you have with the person?
If i were a client though i'd want to keep it professional and polite so i would do the "dear/hi jane" thing.
but i've gotten emails from my boss with no salutation and read that as him being rude or mad, but really wasnt. so i dont blame you for reading it as rude.
I dunno.
 
I've found 99% of the time when I infer rudeness or any other negative meaning from an ambiguous email I'm mistaken. Really helps to give the benefit of the doubt.

Noah
 
email is a wierd breed of cat. I think that people tend to write emails in a more conversational style than they would a letter. and often this style of prose is interpreted in a different manner than intended.

funny enough, i actually did an A&E show where we explored this phenomenon and found that without visual and audio cues, it can be very hard for people to get an accurate read on what was really going on. i think when something seems off, it is best to pick up the phone and ask what they meant.
 
What do you think of brevity?

When someone writes me a very short, brief, email, sometimes, I think.."boy, they must be busy, how efficient?!" other times I do take it as.."this is all you get from me today." other times, I think it is sort of rude:

"here you go."

then there I the times I write a lengthy, polite, descriptive email.

I get the response and it is like 3 sentences.
Then I feel a bit shafted.
 
Most times I usually start with a

Hi________ and end it with my name.

If its someone young and hip, I'll start it with a

Sup _______ and end it with a Peace! or Word!

If its a buddy I grew up with I'll start it with a

Yo beeeatch! Then I end it with a later man..

:)
 
Yeah, it's definitely different when you know the person.

I've gotten emails with the subject "Dude?" and then only a "WTF?" in the message but it's totally understood.

The ALL CAPS thing is never cool imo when you're obviously upset. I see emails from management sometimes like "THE SERVER IS DOWN, WHO'S ON THIS???" and I'm like "what an ass".
 
nullphonic said:
"THE SERVER IS DOWN, WHO'S ON THIS???" and I'm like "what an ass".
Click to expand...

this makes me laugh and feel bad. as I have a time or two sent one of these:

"EMAIL DOWN, PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY"

only to find out it is my stupid Norton Antivirus screwing up my email client.

then another time I wrote something like:

"SERVER DOWN! EMERGENCY"

To whom it may concern:
I am trying to run a small business and now everyone thinks we are defunkt because the server is down. Please help.

only to find out I didn't pay the ISP. oops..

forgive me, for I too, have sinned.
 
Dear Pooh,

Email always comes off as harsher than intended, so if you're communicating with strangers, I think it helps to add a salutation or two. I usually like to start with Hi NAME. On the other hand, we're all getting 12 trillion emails /day, so writing in shorthand doesn't imply someone is irked or even careless--it's just part of communication overload. The best advice I've read regarding internet communication is: Be slow to take offense and be slow to give offense. Thank god for smilies.

Kindest regards :laugh:,

Barry
 
I find that in the work environment, people are extreeeemely informal with e-mail communications, so much so that when I use proper form, punctuation, capitalization, I get accused of being overbearing.

There was one lady who thought I was making fun of her because she misspelled a (farily complex) word in her e-mail to me, and when I wrote back, I wrote the same word twice, but spelled correctly. Well, I wasn't going to misspell it purposely just to make her feel better about herself, so . . .
 
Gotta be flexible and tolerant on email. Everyone has a different style.

But I like the email message "The EMail server is down" being sent by email.... That is classic
 
I think the whole business of on screen comunication is hard to guage, this was demonstrated to me recently when John made his 10,000 post video. I watched it and realized that my mental impression gathered from reading his posts was so far out in left field that I couldn't be bothered to run and get it....Might as well just grab a new ball and resume play! Inflection, body language and eye contact, all the things that make for hard to missunderstand conversation are not present in this form of dealing with one another. In my opinion it is already way to easy to offend ourselves and blame it on others, having said that I think e-mail has to be understood for what it is, a brand new form of comunicating that lacks the cues we are ued to having in face to face discussion. Unlike letters, e-mails tend to be to the point, almost shorthand. When was the last time you got a two page e-mail? It may be that some of the politeness we normally expect has given way to the rush of pumping out the new mail as fast as humanly possible. I try not to sweat it myself.
 
isara said:
It doesn't matter how you start the e-mail, just always leave them feeling good.

You sexy thing!
-pk
Click to expand...

haha, yes, flatter them with the ol'

"YST"

love it, though in email, you really don't know if that is true?:)

I have so many draft emails, it is pathetic. I'm sure I have smartly NOT sent some emails that could have been client-relationship spoilers.

right now, I have one sitting in my draft mail box, that is sugar coated but wants really means...

"YOU WANT ME TO DO THAT???"

well, that will not go out. but I feel better for writing it here, anyway :)
 
I just say whatever I want in whichever format I feel like at the time and let the chips fall where they may. I think anything goes in cyberspace.
 
Sometimes I wish there were some type of email delay. Like anything after 10PM at night and 7am is held in limbo, till after the drunken stupor fades off and you've regained your senses and dignity. Not that I would need that for any reason. :beer:
 
Incoming!

Incoming!

mail.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top