8 Tips for Preventing Email Mistakes in the work Place

It is too easy to hit send these days.  We all have made the mistake of hitting send well before we meant too.  There are few things worse than that sinking feeling when you want to “take back” an email after it was sent.  Here are 8 tips to help you keep your email communications professional and error free.

1)    Make the email is personal…Don’t forget to include a basic greeting “Hi Bill” or closing “Thanks, Sue”
2)    Don’t be impatient. You have sent the email; do not go hover over your bosses desk looking for a response to your email. They will get back to you as soon as they can.  Isn’t that the point of email anyway?
3)    Premature Sending… It is best to not put the recipient’s name in the TO or CC areas until your email is ready to go.  You do not want a half-baked idea flying around the office with your name on it.  Wait till your email is done, proofed and ready to send before putting the names on it and pressing send.
4)    It’s best to read all of your emails from that same person before you respond. That way you can give a clear summary to answer their questions and in some cases, your response may not be needed after all.
5)    Do you really need to “reply all” to that email?  Often times, it is best to only reply to the original sender.  Think twice before hitting send
6)    Auto correct is not always helping you.  Many of today’s cell phone auto correct and many times they auto correct to the wrong word entirely.  Proof emails from your lap top and your phone carefully.
7)    Make your subject line interesting… It will increase the chances of the email actually being read.
8)    Be careful about the use of CC: and BCC: and FWD:  In today’s electronic world everyone will likely know it was you that forwarded or copied that email so do not send anything out unless you are OK with everyone knowing it was from you.