Using e-mail for business communication

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E-mail is electronic mail and the advantages of using e-mail in business are that the speed of communication is greatly advanced and you can respond quickly to customer enquiries.

E-mail applications

If you have a website, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may provide you with an e-mail address which is accessible through webmail. Using webmail, you can view your e-mail from anywhere in the world using a computer with an internet connection. All your mail is stored by the provider so you don’t have to worry about losing any of it. The ISP may provider additional services such as the automatic blocking of spam e-mail (unsolicited e-mail that’s been sent in bulk), automatic e-mail forwarding, automatic reply and filing of e-mail. Alternatively, you can open an account with one of the big webmail providers, Google (www.gmail.com), Yahoo! (mail.yahoo.co.uk) or Microsoft (www.hotmail.com).

Managing e-mail

Email is a wonderful program but few people use email as effectively as they might. The average businessperson is getting around 80 e-mails per day and many feel that about 80% of the messages in their “In Box” are of little or no value.

Here are four suggestions to help you to become better at managing e-mail:

1	Get off the lists. If you are receiving a lot of unwanted e-mails from trusted sources, ask to be removed from the various lists.

2	“Unlisted address”. Just like getting an “unlisted” telephone number that you share only with those whom you want to give direct access, you might want to get a separate e-mail address that you use only for the important communications you wish to receive.

3	Check it once or twice per day. You may want to let your “incoming” mail stack up and respond to them a couple of times per day.

4	Deal with it. Like handling paper, you don’t want to get into the habit where you read e-mail, postpone action, save it, re-read it later, and allow things to slip through the cracks. As you open each e-mail do one of the following:

·	Delete spam e-mail first so you can see the e-mails that need attention.

·	If it requires a quick response, (it will only take a minute or two), respond to it, save a copy if relevant and delete it.

·	If it is going to take any serious amount of time to respond (beyond a minute or two), schedule it for action in your diary and save it, or print it out for future action.

·	Create folders for your e-mails which you can use to store under various categories. This will save you time scrolling down your in-box looking for specific e-mails.

·	Discipline yourself to delete unnecessary e-mails. The very fact it is still in your ‘inbox’ will take up recognition and concentration time.

·	By practicing the suggestions above, you will be able to handle large volumes of e-mails and not be controlled by it to the distraction of more important tasks in your day.

Tips to get the most from your e-mail in business include:

Signature: Always include your contact details at the bottom of your emails. The easiest way to do this is to set up a "signature" in your e-mail system. The recipient has your telephone, fax, address and web address etc. right there, so when they want to get in contact they don't have to hunt around for it. Just think of the sales you could be losing because they don't have your phone number to ask a simple question. You can include an advert for your product or service, or details of a special offer along with a link to your website.

b	Make sure the "from name" says something sensible like "Emerald /Linda Williams". That way, the recipient can see straight away who the e-mail is from.

c	Compose your e-mails with the same care that you would apply to a typed letter.

E-mail creates a written business record that must be retained and archived to meet legal, regulatory, and business requirements. If business records are produced electronically, you are expected to save and store them for the same period of time as paper records.