Always respond to emails and messages. How to Respond to Rude Emails About Your Work How It Works

You know how it happens, you find an email address on a website, write about something important to you, and wait for a response, but there is no response. Day, second, third and in general.

It also happens that you want to order something from an online store, you write a letter through a form or directly, you are promised an answer within 24 hours, but there is no answer.
It also happens differently: I started a correspondence on some issue, and after some time the interlocutor stopped answering. Lost interest or something, or maybe something happened.
And all this is very annoying, you will agree. You think, what kind of person are you that you are not able to answer, write something like: “not interested” or “I’m busy, I’ll answer in a few days.”

When you calm down, you begin to remember that you yourself often do the same thing. For example, they send you a proposal for some project, you are not very interested and you simply forget about the letter and do not respond. And on the other side the person feels exactly the same as I do when they don’t answer me.
And this is what I thought of and what I want to convey to you. Reply to all emails. There is no need for outright spam, but if it is clear that the letter is from person to person, then you need to respond. Even if you are not interested, you need to write that you are not interested.
If you are busy right now, then you should write that you are busy now and I will answer within a week. This is correct, this is businesslike and this is necessary if you want them to answer you too. Whatever the answer, you need to answer and try to do it within 24-48 hours, so that the person does not think or guess.

I, too, am lazy, uninterested, bored and simply have no time to answer some letters, especially those that are not interesting to me. But I educate myself and teach myself to answer, because I want them to answer me too. And it’s bad form not to respond or to abandon a conversation that has started. Maybe you didn’t pay attention to this before this post, but now you’ve noticed this nuance. Since this post is intended specifically to draw the attention of those who read it to this. I hope I succeeded. And finally, a little story on the topic.

One day I received a letter of rather vague content, either about advertising or promotion, but it didn’t look like spam. It was obvious that it was written by a living person. I did not want to answer, since the content of the letter did not contain anything intelligible or interesting to me. But I forced myself to respond, following the rule of this article: “answer letters, even if they are not very interesting to me.” He replied that I was not interested and did not understand at all what was going on, deciding that this would be the end of my correspondence with this person.
But the correspondence did not end, and in the next letter this person sent me an offer that was difficult to refuse - free trial advertising on certain sites. Deciding that why not, I agreed. Although I didn't really like the results of the advertising, I still got a month of advertising for free, which would have cost me several thousand dollars if I had purchased it.
This is how a simple action consistent with business etiquette led to benefits for my business.

How many times a day do you check your email? How many emails do you send every day? How many of them are marked “important”?! And finally, how many of these letters remain unanswered? You need to be able to write “correct” letters that a person simply cannot help but respond to. It turns out that there are people who conduct entire seminars on these topics, and they (the seminars) are in quite high demand.

Do you want to quickly receive answers to important emails? There are as many as 5 proven ways to get what you want.

1. Write short letters.

People like to put off unimportant things. And if they received a seemingly important, but very long letter in the mail, this is another reason to postpone the answer. It is difficult to quickly respond to a long letter. First, you need to read it. Secondly, realize and think about what is written there. And finally, thirdly, you need to write a clear answer to it. Moreover, such long letters can often contain a lot of questions and different topics. And this creates additional difficulties in identifying the main topic or question, which in turn again leads to shelving this letter.

It is much easier to give a short, intelligible and, most importantly, quick response to a short e-mail. One letter - one topic or question!

Write letters less often

If you send an employee a lot of letters, eventually he simply gets used to the fact that every morning two or three of your letters are already waiting in his mailbox. Well, he won’t answer now - what’s the difference? A little later you will send him another reminder letter with the same question.

Don't teach people that you can write as many letters as you want. Anytime. Teach people to value your emails by only sending them when you have truly important and valuable information.

Always ask for answers to your letters

It sounds simple, but we often forget to do this. We can describe the problem in an email in any way we want and even sketch out several possible solutions, but we often forget to clearly ask for a response to this e-mail. For us, as the senders of the letter, the next step - answering it - is obvious. But it may not be obvious to the recipient. Especially if the letter was sent at the height of the working day or during the busy time of replies and all sorts of deadlines.

Don't forget to always politely ask for a response at the end of your letter., because it's important to you and the recipient.

Start with specific deadlines

Another reason for postponing responses to a letter is its unspoken urgency or the date by which a response must be given. The system of “hot deadlines” has long taken root with us and no matter how long the task is delayed, we still know that we simply must complete it by a certain date. The same goes for letters. State the timing in the first few sentences. It takes until your nose bleeds to get a response to this letter.

One letter - one recipient

It is very tempting to write a letter and specify several recipients at once. Many people do this, right? Don't buy into the idea of ​​being easy and fast. Spend a little more and send the letter to everyone individually. You'll see, you will receive your answers much faster than with a collective mailing. Cause? The fact is that when a person sees several recipients in the address bar, shifting responsibility to someone from this list immediately works. The recipient hopes that someone else on the list will answer the question. As a result, you may be left with no answer at all.

If you still need to send a message to a group of people, try to clearly ask a question or assign a task to each of those listed in the letter. That is, a general message with individual tasks is obtained.

Try to be extremely correct in any situation (no one likes rude people) and ask specific questions with a clear time frame for their implementation.

All of us, at least once, received e-mail(s) at work that literally made our jaws drop - from colleagues, bosses, clients. Sometimes you perform a task to the best of your ability and/or ability - and the result is truly as good as is imaginable in the situation - but people seem unable to respond professionally in such cases (especially when it comes to work), or show at least a modicum of decency.

Be that as it may, while you are at work, it is important to keep your communication at a calm and reasonable level, because you represent the company you work for, and your incorrect reaction to rudeness can affect the business in the future, as well as undermine your own position in this company. So instead of responding to a tit-for-tat email like this, sit back, take a deep breath, and read the following tips.
Difficulty: moderate. It wouldn’t hurt to stock up on a sports wrist expander or a rubber anti-stress ball (to quickly neutralize physical aggression).

1. Do not respond to a letter immediately - immediately after you have read it. If you are openly bursting, express your emotional reaction in a draft letter (not in the mail service, so as not to accidentally send it; use any text editor, check for errors at the same time), just to remove all these harsh and sarcastic phrases, irritation and indignation from your head, which at that moment were firmly lodged in her.

Allow sufficient time to pass after reviewing the email received unless a response is urgently required due to certain circumstances. As they say, “sleep” with the information received - if time permits, between reading the letter and answering it, insert one night of good, healthy and deep sleep. In the morning everything seems easier and fresh ideas appear. Come up with an answer that, without offending the addressee, will demonstrate that you are a professional of a higher class than both the author of the letter and what he considers you to be. Whatever you do after reading a rude email like this, don't respond to it right away. You may blurt out emotional, damaging information and only add fuel to the fire. Instead, just take at least a break to drink cold water from the cooler, or, as already written above, leave the solution to the issue for tomorrow.

2. Start with politeness. Among other things, it has been empirically and long ago proven that calm and sincere politeness in response to open aggression usually discourages the enemy and in itself makes him calm down - screaming and swearing at polite, reasoned prudence, people usually quickly begin to feel like complete idiots. If someone sends you a particularly vicious letter, you don't have to respond as if you're happy to take on their aggression, but you do need to be polite. Remember, at this moment you represent your company! A simple “Thank you for your letter” sometimes takes the edge off the situation and directs the conversation in the right direction. Let him or her know that you appreciate their feedback and the information it provided.

3. Offer an intelligent solution. Do not insert into the letter any and all far-fetched solutions that are guaranteed to be disliked by the opposite party; in 95 percent out of 100, this will inflate an ordinary inadequate complaint into a serious scandal that will affect both your superiors and the reputation of your company.

Sometimes, in simple cases, you can get off the hook simply by using the following text: “Thank you for your message. I will contact you and offer options for solving the problem as soon as possible.” Just offer: 1) a quick response to the message, 2) politeness, 3) a willingness to solve the problem - this is just a super professional approach. At the same time, when the time comes to fully respond to an unfriendly e-mail, it doesn’t matter whether it came from a colleague or from a client, it is important to be polite first of all, but don’t pour water, get straight to the point.

You can write that you understand her or his distress about the matter, but then restate the statement that you were objective in planning/executing/evaluating_the results of your project. For example: “I'm sorry to hear that you don't agree with our new strategy, but our main goal right now is to help the entire organization as a whole. There is no way we can pay special attention to a particular department.” At the same time, immediately after, offer to discuss the issue in order to solve the problem that has arisen in the near future.

Again, you may be rash to bring him or her down right away, but you're on the job, and the best thing you can do is be professional. A couple of unpleasant phrases on your part, and this will most likely cause up to a hundred of the most unpleasant consequences, from a reprimand or the acquisition of an enemy (or, well, a very unpleasant neighbor) in the person of a colleague, to the loss of a client, or a similar situation when you are in the opponent’s place, but the other party will flatly refuse to cooperate with you. Offering help, being a team player and giving an objective assessment of the situation (let's face it, such letters are sometimes deserved, even if you really don't want to understand it) - this is the course that will lead you to success. And even if you have to run a couple of kilometers in the evenings in order to relieve tension after you meet this person every day - because you are so angry with him or her that you cannot do without releasing stressful energy, so be it So. Release your anger in a constructive way; You don't have to love anyone to be a professional.

4. Stand firmly on the ground and stand up for your opinion. If the letter uses an offensive form of address and/or inadequate arguments, you should not just sit on your butt and swallow such rudeness. There are plenty of ways to clearly and directly state your position and set boundaries in your response without sounding as immature as they do. You could use, for example, the following simple phrase: “I appreciate your feedback, but I think it could be more effective if it were presented in a more constructive manner.” A simple and effective trick. It is important to let the person know that while you are absolutely willing to accept constructive criticism, you are both at work and need to remain professional. There is no harm in politely reminding him or her of this with a hint.

When composing emails, people often and frankly "sound" like children, not knowing how to choose the right words - or rather, not wanting to. When this is the case, it's totally fine if you talk to them like they're five years old (as long as you remain polite, of course, even though you really want to kick them in the butt through the screen). Simply pointing out their mistakes, but in no way mocking them, not taking a condescending or patronizing tone, etc. And, moreover, not refusing to solve the problem that has arisen (because they supposedly look at the issue in a childish way). By being calm and rational—which is what it means to “talk to them like five-year-olds”—you'll get tons of apologies and positive feedback in return (even if you take the "No, no, honey, that's not right" approach).

If you receive a message, there are several actions you can take from the messages.

To reply to the sender only, select answer.

To reply to the sender and all other recipients on the To and Cc lines, select Reply All.

To send a message to someone not in the To field or line copy, highlight forward.

Replying and forwarding messages is one of the most common tasks in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. This section provides basic information about replying and forwarding messages. Help with customizing your messages, such as changing the background or adding attachments, is available in other topics.

In this article

Reply to sender

Note:

Reply to the sender and all recipients of the message

You can reply to the sender of the message and all users specified in the fields To whom And Copy.

In many cases, it is not necessary to include all users in the response. Use the function Reply All with caution, especially if you have a large number of recipients or mailing lists. If you need to write only to the sender of the message, it is recommended to use the button Answer. Additionally, you can remove the names of people or mailing lists that don't need to read the response.

Advice: If you only need to write to one of the recipients, you can remove the others. To do this, click the recipient's name in the field To whom or Copy(the name will be highlighted) and press the DELETE key.

Note: By default, when you reply to an email message, the original message is included in the body of the message. See the section to change this setting.

Forwarding a message

Advice: If you want to forward multiple messages, select the first one and hold down the CTRL key while selecting the remaining messages, then click Forward. All messages will be forwarded as attachments to a new message.

Do one of the following:

• If a message is selected but not opened in a separate window. On the standard toolbar, click the button Forward.

  If the message is open. On the tab Message in Group Answer click the button Forward.

Create a message.

In field To whom enter the names of the recipients.

Note: In the fields To whom, Copy And SK At least one valid email recipient must be specified.

To select recipient names from the list, click To whom, Copy or SK.

More about fields Copy And SK

Copy: A copy of the message is sent to all recipients specified in this Outlook message field. In this case, their names will be visible to all other recipients of this message.

SK: The name of this field is short for "bcc". All recipients specified in this email message field will receive a copy of the message, but their names will not be visible to other message recipients. If, when creating a new message, the field SK is not displayed, it can be added.

• On the tab Options in Group Fields select item Display the "BC" field.

Click the button Send.

Cancel automatic inclusion of original message

Troubleshoot problems where the Submit button is missing

In the absence of a command Send it is impossible to send a message. This section provides information about finding a command Send, possible reasons for its absence are indicated and actions to correct this problem are listed.

Button Send is located next to the "To", "Cc" and "Bcc" fields.

If you don't have an email account configured in Outlook 2007, the command Send is not displayed and messages cannot be sent.

In most cases, Outlook 2007 is used with an email account. However, there are a number of reasons why an email account might not be set up:

Outlook 2007 is configured without email support. In rare cases, Outlook 2007 may be configured to manage only contacts, tasks, or calendars.

The email account setup was interrupted. The first time you launched Outlook 2007, account setup was not completed.

The account configuration file is corrupt. Corruption of the configuration file that is used to store email account configuration information may result in a previously configured email account not being visible.

Note: You can open an Outlook data file called a personal folders (.pst) file, view received messages, and open the compose message window using the commands Create, Answer, Reply All or Forward. However, if no email account is configured, the Send will not be displayed.

Checking account availability

First, make sure your email account is set up.

If on the list Name on the tab Email There are no entries, there are no email accounts configured in the Outlook profile.

For more information about adding an email account, see

Writing letters seems to us something so familiar and natural that we rarely think about the wording and presentation. Meanwhile, many people have no idea how to write correct emails. Maxim Chernov, an expert in networking and career building, author of the blog pronetworking.ru, clearly explained how to write letters so that they are always answered.

Writing is a commodity

Even though we know that writing effective letters is the cornerstone of modern communication, no one is in a hurry to teach young professionals this important task. The ability to write a good email - one to which you will get a 100% response - is halfway to achieving your goal. A lot can depend on just one letter: whether you get a good job, whether you find an investor to finance your project, whether you get advice or help that can change your whole life.

Whatever the letter, it is a product, even if you are not literally selling anything. The recipient of the message may receive dozens or even hundreds of similar letters every day. In this case, devoting equal time and attention to each email is not rational.

As in direct selling, the recipient has his own ways of sorting incoming information. The general flow of letters is divided into two: those that deserve a response, and those that will be sent to the trash without the slightest hesitation after a quick reading. Where your email is sent depends on how engaging it is with the recipient. The letter provides an opportunity to make a first impression about the sender, and whether it goes to the “reply” or “delete” section depends on subtle signals.

On what factors may the sender and recipient of a message NOT agree:

Recipient position:

• Dozens of letters arrive daily;
• if the person is famous, the messages are often in the nature of compliments or rude flattery;
• regularly faces a standard set of questions about a product/service;
• constantly lacking free time;
• in principle, I don’t mind helping if it doesn’t require a lot of time or effort.

Sender's position:

• spends a lot of time and effort writing the “ideal” message;
• confident in the originality and uniqueness of your own request;
• I am sure that his case is special; no one has asked for such a service before;
• does not see hypothetical reasons for refusal;
• strives to tell his own story in as much detail as possible, to reveal all the nuances so that the opponent accurately understands the point of view.

Below is a list of nuances that people pay attention to when deciding whether to respond to a letter. The requirements may seem overly stringent, but this is not a matter of personal like or dislike, but what periodical editors, recruiters and owners of reputable companies actually pay attention to. This is what people talk about behind your back, and there's no point in hiding anything in an attempt to appear nicer or more interesting.

Note: This guideline only applies to emails where you need something from the recipient, even if it's just a response. If the email is being written to exchange information, express gratitude, or as part of friendly correspondence, these rules are not as important.

Letter Writing Guide: Checklist

1. Respect the personal time of the recipient, make sure that email is necessary in principle.

When you write a letter, you also say the following: “What I want to convey is worth at least a few minutes of your time, which you could spend for the benefit of yourself, your work, or give to your family and friends.”

Don't force the recipient to spend even a second solving issues that they can figure out on their own. Respect others and believe in yourself! It’s amazing how many questions can be resolved by turning to any of the search engines for help (sometimes you just want to answer: “Let me Google for you...”).

2. You need to start with a greeting

Getting to the point without first introducing it seems too rude.

It is better to use “Good afternoon/evening, _____”, “Hello, _____”. But if possible, refrain from familiarities like “Hello ____,” especially if you have not established close contact and the correspondence history does not take up dozens of pages.

It seems to me that the tendency to omit the greeting is made more noticeable by the built-in response forms used on most resources. Remember that you enter text into a form on the site, and the recipient receives the most ordinary letter.

3. Address the message to the person (or those) you are writing to

Make every effort to find out the name of the person who will read the letter. Calling by name feels much more personal than the standard “Hello.” Also, email becomes much more personal and no longer looks like a mass mailing or spam. If a question you are interested in is asked to two people at once, greet them: “Hello, Yulia and Sergey!”

4. Make sure to spell the recipient’s first and last name correctly

Strange, isn't it? A mistake when writing a name immediately cuts off all possible contacts with the person even before reading the message itself. The recipient may think that not only do you know little about him personally, but that you are generally not inclined to pay attention to small details. If your misspelled name is followed by something like “I am your sincere admirer,” then you will definitely seem insincere.

5. Emotional connection between sender and recipient comes first

The recipient will be pre-disposed to dialogue and will want to help if you create an emotional connection with him. The main rule is complete truthfulness and brevity.

A few samples on the topic:

• “I’ve been reading your resource for 2 years; Thanks to the blog pronetworking.ru, I discovered many interesting techniques, met famous investors and received a promotion at my current job.”
• “For three years I have been buying Gucci Flora water, which you launched. The scent became my favorite after my birthday, when I received this wonderful gift from my husband in luxurious packaging.”
• “Like your fellow countryman from Vladivostok...”
• “I am amazed by the methodology and results of your research into elk mating. After reading your book, I decided to study biogeography. Therefore, I will be glad to receive advice..."
• Sometimes senders send the following: “Your resource is very interesting and useful. Especially a post on the topic (any article from the main page).” This connection seems a little far-fetched and may have the opposite effect. It is better to compose the text of the letter so that the recipient does not doubt your sincere interest.

6. Keep it short and get to the point.

The time, work or personal, that the recipient will spend reading your email is priceless. Letters on ten pages in small handwriting and a detailed retelling of autobiographical data are absolutely inappropriate. A quick transition to issues of interest, a small number of sentences and general brevity will help to interest the recipient of the message.

7. Clarity without sacrificing conciseness

Excellent example NOT very well written message:

“Hello, Maxim!
I am delighted with your resource. We do something similar. Maybe we can join forces and start a joint project? There are some good ideas I'd like to discuss.
Yours sincerely,
Anton"

It is clear that the recipient is at a loss - you came out of nowhere with your not very clear proposal. It is your task to think through all the details, formulate a question and come up with a specific idea - clear, clear and intelligible. Your responsibility is to provide the addressee with an information “product” that he will buy or not. Also try to make the recipient's job easier and not force him to spend a lot of personal time and effort on a reply letter.

The less text and the more concise the question, the greater the possibility of obtaining a definite answer.

8. Don't try to tease

Example incorrect appeals:

“Hello, Maxim!
Your site is good, but I have some amazing ideas for improving it. Interested? Write me.
Eugene"

Such messages must be urgently deleted - there is no need to waste time responding if the idea itself may not be of interest.

9. If there is a link, don’t hide it!

There is no need to unfoundedly mention your resource. Although it will take a few seconds for the recipient to search for the mentioned site/portal/resource, it is unlikely that anyone will do this for every letter received. Try to make the recipient’s work easier and eliminate another obstacle to the business in advance.

10. DO NOT USE CAPS LOCK

The use of CAPSLOCK is not only bad manners in online communication, but also a signal of insanity. Such letters are not even read, and I would like to advise their senders to contact good specialists.

11. only small letters are also bad

It's impossible to take seriously a message from someone who doesn't bother to use the shift button.

12. Finished the text of the message - check it for errors

The first impression of yourself cannot be corrected, and gross spelling, grammatical and other errors cannot but worsen it. You should especially pay close attention to the words underlying your idea or question. Otherwise, it will seem that you do not understand the topic and do not want to delve into it.

These universal tips will help when writing any letters - to your boss, partners, client or interesting author. Your chances of receiving a useful answer and continuing fruitful cooperation increase by an order of magnitude.