Internet Etiquette - Netiquette HOME Page
Business writing is a very important aspect of communication with clients and prospective clients as it is a form of advertising of what your company is about, and can be seen as an indication of future relations.As you know, it can be very damaging for your company if you can’t deliver on promises made, if the writing is inappropriate, if too much jargon is used, if the communication is in bad taste, puts one to sleep, or just badly written.
Netiquette covers these aspects of Communication in the following ways:
- How best to communicate with clients and prospective clients
- Build trust;
- your client must have a clear picture of the scope and extent of what you, as representative of your company, promise to deliver on, and by when they can expect it,
- you keep the client up to date as to progress, problems, challenges, and achievements so that they are fully aware whether you are going to make the milestones or not,
- you deliver on time as promised or negotiated,
- Show respect, taking into consideration who you are writing to with relation to:
- the position, authority, or seniority of your correspondee,
- the technical expertise of the recipient of your communication,
- Choose the most appropriate form of communication, e-mail might not be the best medium for what you are trying to achieve,
- Create processes and procedures and have checks in place to ensure the best possible experience for all to improve service delivery, self confidence of the respondent and improve relations with customers, clients, and colleagues.
Why do you need email etiquette or netiquette?
A company needs to implement netiquette rules for the following three reasons:
- Professionalism; Using appropriate email language helps your company convey a professional, customer-centric image.
- Efficiency; emails that have the right amount of information in the right places, facilitates the process of reading, communicating, searching for, and finding what you are looking for, and also makes it easier to respond and reply to.
- Protection from liability; being aware of the risks that go with the immediacy of emails, will protect your company from costly law suits, and angry customers.
Who needs email etiquette?
- When last did you send an e-mail and as you hit the send button you saw that you misspelled something, or you forgot to add your attachment, or delete something you didn't want the other person to see? Even of you only did it once this month, there might be other things you are missing without noticing.
- Do you know what the legal implications are of sending copyrighted, confidential, or 'private' company information?
- Do you know what is considered 'SPAM' mail? Is it any unsolicited mail, or not?
- Should you include disclaimers? If so, where should they feature - at the beginning or the end of your e-mail?
- How do you respond to rants, raves, and other abusive mails? Should you respond?
- How do you denote emotion in your mail in an appropriate way without using emoticons?
- What do you need to consider for a subject line that will give you, and your respondent, the best mileage?
- What are simple techniques to get your message across in the shortest possible way without being short?
- What can you do to save time, yours and theirs?
- How soon do you respond to a mail after receiving it?
- What is the policy around personal e-mails, Social Networking?
- Do you know how 'private' the personal mails are you send from the office?
- When do you delete old emails?
- What do you do when you want to send large files, especially to someone with dial-up or limited bandwidth?
- What is your email message saying about you (between the lines)?
If you feel you, and each of your employees, can answer these questions with 100% accuracy, then this course is not for you.
If you feel this course has merit and you would like to engage our services:
This course has a standard component which is applicable to everyone. It comprises of two hours hands-on experiential training with real life examples from our store. We may also extract some specific examples appropriate to your industry, or operation. A follow-up session to consolidate is advisable.More advanced training can be organised on request for middle or senior management where the legal implications could be more dire, or...other.
What will you get out of this Netiquette Training?
o By using experiential training techniques, each person will find out for themselves what the best practices are by making mistakes, and helping each other find better ways of doing things.o Each staff member will receive access to a Quick-Reference Netiquette Guide with best practice recommendations.
o Staff will draw up their own draft Netiquette Procedures Manual where they will decide which of these 'rules' they are going to implement, with recommendations as to what checks and balances they will use to enforce it.
o The Processes and procedures to enforce netiquette must not be onerous or overly time-consuming. (They may take some time to set up and get going in the beginning.)
o With practice: More efficient and effective use of e-mail communication, resulting in better customer relations.
