HubRunner Picks: Improve Your Emails

A major part of running an efficient and successful business comes down to the quality of communication between the company and the clients. In an age filled with LOLs and emoticons, its important to maintain a high level of professionalism and decorum when responding to customer emails, no matter the subject. What would your customers say about you if you always delivered amazingly responsive emails?

We’re compiled our choice of effective, helpful, and easy resources for improving your emails, and, therefore, improving your business, today!

Salesforce – How to Write a Great Email to a Customer

We retained several useful points from this article Salesforce posted about improving customer communication via email, including:

• Effectiveness is closely aligned with ideas, emotions and tone, causing the wow factor among customers
• Make them actionable, fill them with interestingness, and give them high relevance. (A.I.R.-HBR post)
• Emails are not only a means of communication, but also a way to build a relationship with clients, providing them with the comfortability and openness to build a successful partnership
• Be courteous, be clear, be interesting and actionable; it lets the recipients know you are “listening” to them! Restate the problem and acknowledge solutions
• KISS it: Keep It Short and Simple- be honest and to the point!

HubSpot – 25 of the Most Common Grammatical Errors We All Need to Stop Making

This article from HubSpot reminds us we might need to brush up on our grammar skills for the sake of our business.

Although we learn grammar from day one in school, it never fails to creep up and remind us that the English language is a lot harder to remember and use on a daily basis. Keeping grammatical errors in check will not only boost you credibility as a successful business leader or entrepreneur, but also as an educated and reliable individual over all. There’s nothing as off-putting to a customer as finding a grammatical error their 5th grader knows not to make!

Here are a few of the most common:

• Affect vs. Effective
• I.e vs e.g.
• Then vs than
• Use of commas
• Assure vs insure vs ensure

Avoiding these common mistakes will make a world of difference in your skills not only as an intellectual leader who is fit to run a business, but also as a well-spoken email writer!

Buffer – A Simple Strategy to get More Replies to the Emails You Send

During a busy day, when trying to multi-task a plethora of problems, practices and people, emails can often become unacknowledged, burdensome or time consuming, especially if they are not written with specificity, quality or directness. Don’t let an urgent or time restrained message be swept under the digital rug and cost you valuable time, energy and money. A few ways to prevent this from happening:

• Don’t be vague, be specific: never leave something “up in the air” or without determination
• Arrange details and then allow recipient to rearrange them in regards to schedule and flexibility!
• Remember to check up and double check emails received and sent! Nothing worse then forgetting to respond or responding to the wrong email address

These short, easy techniques will save you valuable time and energy. You can then focus your efforts on getting things done and running a successful business.

Do you use any other techniques to improve emails with your customers? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.