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ASP Forum
E-Mail Writing Standards
"A few of our support reps have real problems writing a grammatical
English sentence. They insist that e-mail is a 'different medium,'
so punctuation and spelling aren't important. Who's right?"
—Cory from Cortland
Cory—
In my opinion, the ability to write well is one thing that separates
true support professionals from the amateurs who find their way into
this industry. A poorly written email or IM from a support organization
reflects badly on the company: if the company can't be bothered to
attend to simple details like spelling, how can I trust it to be
concerned with other details? Good writing shows pride in the craft;
bad writing is careless and slovenly.
I disagree with the idea that templates are a solution. In
general, if we can convey information in a template it's better left
on the web for self-service support. Training in good writing can help,
but only if the writer has desire or incentive to improve. I have
found that in many cases the reason people don't take care has to do
with typing ability. Support people who touch type rather than hunt
and peck are more likely capitalize — and they are often more
responsive on IM.
Especially now that most support services are global and not all people
speak to us in their first language, we should try to avoid anything
that could impede understanding.
—Andrew Cornwall
Andrew_Cornwall@us.ibm.com
Even though most people who text message, IM, and use personal email
often use shortcuts and abbreviations for ease of entry and brevity,
correspondence with customers must be complete, correct, punctuated
correctly and have proper grammar. In my experience with many clients'
support practices, I have found that email is the source of most
customer dissatisfaction and leads to most of the escalations of
cases/tickets. In addition, email support usually takes longer to
solve an issue due to email "ping pong."
Email lacks the visual connection of being face to face and the audio
connection of phone support, so there is little opportunity to "read"
the client's mood, state of mind, humor, etc. This leaves ample
opportunity to "miss-read" the email — in either direction. Often
cavalier comments from the support technician can be construed as rude,
apathetic, or incompetent. Once that happens, the customer will begin
behaving in a manner that will not be beneficial to anyone. Many
customers are offended by sloppy, unprofessional emails, and can infer
that one who writes poorly is also incompetent in their support role
too. Email with people who do not have English as their first language
will become confused with non-proper written English.
In order to create customer satisfaction, resolve issues and questions
quickly and accurately, reduce support technician time on
troubleshooting, and create an environment of harmony with customers,
the written word must be precise, easy to understand, correct, and
complete.
—Rick Kilton
RWK Enterprises, Inc.
Lyons, CO 80540
303-823-6448
rkilton@rwkenterprises.com
http://www.rwkenterprises.com
While email writing standards are considerably more relaxed than
the ones held by your high school English teacher, spelling,
punctuation, and even grammar count. The tone of an email can be
more casual than other formal communications but it still needs
to make sense at the other end, which means: complete sentences,
correct punctuation, and well-chosen wording. A short training
session is often just the ticket to refresh everyone’s skills.
Creating reusable templates is a big help for reps that have
persistent writing blocks, as well as to ensure consistency. And
mandating the use of a spellchecker is also terribly useful for
the spelling and typing challenged..
Also, I would remind the reps that email is wonderful for conveying
factual information such as the steps to follow to fix a problem
it’s a terrible way to communicate bad news, so they should not
hesitate to pick up the phone when appropriate: no hiding behind
email!
—Françoise Tourniaire
FT@ftworks.com
FT Works
650-559-9826
[If you have any other advice on this question, please send an
e-mail to membership director Jane Farber at jfarber@asponline.com, and
we'll post your feedback.]
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