Many small and medium businesses live and breathe through email communication, but reading unnecessarily long emails or receiving irrelevant emails are rarely at the top of anyone’s list.
Establishing consistent email policies & etiquette across your business helps everyone manage their inbox and time more efficiently. Especially for small businesses, whose employees are wearing multiple hats, email policies ensure more time and resources can be spent working with clients or on projects. Here are our top 5 email policies for your small business to implement:
1. Don’t overuse “Reply All” There are times when a reply is only necessary for the original sender, or maybe a few team members. Remove contacts from your response if the reply is not relevant to them. You can establish best practices for your specific business.
2. Share folders & calendars This is a great idea for executives and their assistants to reply to emails and schedule appointments more efficiently. Rather than send emails back and forth asking when one another are available, you can view shared calendars and expedite the scheduling process.
3. Include a time estimate when you delegate tasks This not only keeps everyone on the same page, but it eliminates the need for emails checking-in on the status of pending tasks.
4. Use “EOM” For those times that you just need to send a quick email to let a colleague know something is ready or finished, for example, use the “End of Message” acronym. If your message is brief enough to fit in the subject line, just type the message followed by “EOM.” The recipient can read your message in the subject line and delete the email.
5. Don’t keep a conversation going unnecessarily When the purpose of the email has been solved or completed, try not to continue responding. For instance, if your response simply includes, “Thanks,” it may be unnecessary for both you and the recipient.
Integrate these email policies into your small business in order to save everyone time and energy. Have any other policies that your team uses? Share them with us!
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