E-mail is a weapon

After working 3 years for a govt. organization when I started trying in other companies for better salary, the HR person in a reputed product based company denied to accept my experience of 3 years and therefore happy to negotiate the salary down.

He said that my first company was not giving him confirmation that I worked there. At first, I thought this might be part of negotiation tactics but later he showed me the mail communication. They simply said that they don’t have any record with the person's name ever worked in their organization. 

I got pissed off and wrote a mail to vice president there. Result was awesome. Within half an hour, the HR dept. got my records and confirmed back.

That was the power of an effective email. Emails are the most used medium of communication now a days in business.

The simple rule of writing effective email is - write clear, brief message to relevant people.

Always start with understanding the recipients, the content of the message, and then what is that you want in return. This could be any confirmation or information or someone to work on something. At end of mail, write your signature including your name, mobile number, mail id, designation and company name.

The next important is subject line. It should be summary of your message. Just at the subject line, recipients should understand that it should be just an information or some actions are also expected. e.g. FYI - I will be on leave tomorrow, Action Required: Complete the training by EOD

Keep all those in CC who are not directly impacted with your message however they certainly need to be informed. Avoid keeping any one in BCC. Why do you want someone else be aware about this communication without others knowing about this? Still if you want, keep him in BCC.

Use return receipt only when you want a confirmation back about your message being read.

Don't use all capital or all bold unless you really want to shout on the recipient. Don’t use red font unless you want to highlight risk. Do use other colors if you want to draw attention on some of the information separately.

E-mails are the communication that can be used as an evidence years later so never send or reply mail with emotions. Never send or reply fuming mails immediately. Give yourself some time to cool down.

Sarcasm should be avoided as it can be interpreted differently by different people.

Never send emails without proof-reading. Check for grammar, relevance, clarity and the reason why it is necessary to send mail. In case you are sending some important mail, get it reviewed with your colleague or friend. 

Writing good emails is a strength; try to master this art.

Seeds of thoughts:

Consider that you have ordered a gas stove from Flipkart and they have not delivered the model that you actually ordered. You called them but didn't get satisfactory response. Now you want them to take this item back and return your money. Write a mail to their customer support department and write an escalation mail also if they don’t seem to revert on your concern.

- Amit Roop