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You’re a business owner! Whether on eBay or through your own custom website, you regularly provide products for customers to buy, and you are ultimately responsible to that they get what they ask for. Since your business is online, most of your contact with those customers will come through e-mail. What can you do to make sure that correspondence is positive?

Limitations of E-Mail
Talking to someone through e-mail isn’t like having a conversation face-to-face. In fact, it isn’t even like having a conversation over the telephone or using an instant-messaging service like Microsoft Instant Messenger. Instead, e-mail is very much its own method of communication, with special rules and courtesies that you need to keep in mind as you compose. If you don’t follow the rules, an e-mail can be easily misunderstood. And the last thing you want is for your customers to misunderstand you!

Twelve Rules to Improve Your E-Mail Skills
These twelve rules will help you to keep your e-mails sounding professional and clear so that your customers will get what they need and want out of them.

Rule #1: Answer Quickly
Customers expect a quick reply when they send an e-mail! Never make your customers wait more than 24 hours before they hear back from you; you should get used to checking your e-mail box at least once a day, and usually more often than that. If you cannot completely answer an e-mail query when you receive it, send a reply answering what you can and promise to get back to them once you have the information they need. Always keep your promise.

Rule #2: Answer All of Your Customer’s Questions, and Pre-empt Further ones
Make sure you read incoming e-mails carefully, and double check them before you send your reply to make certain that you’ve covered everything the customer needed to know. At the same time, use what you know about your customer to predict additional things they will need. Customers appreciate a business that takes time to anticipate and attend to their needs.

Rule #3: Be Concise and to the Point
Never make an e-mail longer than it needs to be. Reading an e-mail isn’t like reading a printed letter; don’t intimidate your customers with something long and unwieldy! Sending an e-mail that is too long can make your reader feel like skimming what you have to say, which is often a sure recipe for misunderstanding.

Rule #4: Use Proper Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation
Remember, grammar rules are there for a very good reason: they make your text easier to understand. If you neglect your spelling or punctuation, it doesn’t just make your business look unprofessional; it makes what you are writing difficult to understand. Most e-mail programs have spellcheckers now, be sure to use them!

Rule #5: Personalize
Sometimes it’s appropriate to use a template for responding to your customers, but do everything you can to avoid letting your e-mails sound canned. Use your customers name, and make whatever changes to the text are necessary to specifically address their questions and concerns.

Rule #6: Mind Your Structure & Layout
Since reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper, take care to structure the text of your e-mail in a way that will be easy on the eyes. In general, use short paragraphs and simple sentences and make sure your e-mail software leaves enough space between the lines. Also keep in mind options like bulleted and numbered lists.

Rule #7: Never Write in ALL CAPITALS
Remember; uppercase letters are designed to make text easier to read when they are used in combination with lowercase ones. Uppercase letters by themselves indicate shouting however, which is rude as well as difficult to read. It’s best to simply never use all capitals at all.

Rule #8: Always Read the E-Mail Before you Send it
Although it might seem silly, it’s amazing to see how many people are too quick to click the “Send” button. Take a second after you compose your e-mail to make sure it reads well, is appropriately personalized, and covers all of the points that it should.

Rule #9: Be Careful With Formatting
Remember that different e-mail services have different formatting abilities. As a general rule, keep formatting simple, with few colors, and keep everything easy to read against a white background.

Rule #10: Use a Meaningful Subject
Always use a subject for your e-mails, and make sure it is specific and useful. Generic subject lines can be easily mistaken for spam, either by the user or by automatic spam filters, and your carefully crafted e-mail could end up being discarded without being read. It is usually best to include your name (or company name) as well as the name of the product your customer is purchasing.

Rule #11: Avoid Long Sentences
As a general rule, sentences in an e-mail shouldn’t be longer than twenty words. Your customer is going to want to get the message quickly; don’t make your sentences too complicated or you risk them missing something important.

Rule #12: Use Active Voice
Sometimes, in an attempt to sound formal or well educated, e-mail writers use passive voice. Remember: “We will process your order today” sounds far better to your customer than “your order will be processed today.” The second example doesn’t just sound stuffy; it sounds like the task of processing the order has been passed on to someone else.

Conclusion
Your business exists to serve your customers, and you want your e-mails to reflect that fact. Follow the rules outlined above, and your communications with your customers will always be clear and effective.

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