The email love/hate debate

[Andy Price]

Hi all -

I (very) recently intro'd myself in the newbies forum but I thought I'd get going with contributing to the discussion.

As I mention in that post I'm going to be contributing some articles to the Business Zone site and that I'd probably be asking your thoughts on a number of topics.

The first one I'm intrigued to hear about is email. Are you the type of person that strives towards an inbox zero scenario or do you let it run? Do you feel email makes you more productive, and saves time, or is it the bane of your life and you despise the necessary Sunday evening clear out so you're Monday morning is a few percent easier to deal with?

Essentially I'm asking:

- Does email stress you out?
- Could you ever do without email?
- What do you think of email-systems, like ticketing-systems - if anyone has experience with these?
- Does anyone have any email success stories? As in, it's helped you achieve something you couldn't without.
- Any email nightmares? Perhaps, having to spend more than half your day dealing with them, or work out of hours to keep levels low.

The reason I ask is that I've seen a number of research pieces over the years that talk about "the death of email" - and I'm not sure if this could feasibly ever happen. Even though it's a fairly new business tool it seems to ingrained - but it does cause many problems. I'd be intrigued to hear how your views may relate or differ to this

Thanks in advance for sharing!

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Essentially I'm asking:

- Does email stress you out? - No, people who won't accept an email and insist on you printing and posting a letter do

- Could you ever do without email? - Not without replacing it with some other way to get information sent/recieved from clients at any time of the day or night

- What do you think of email-systems, like ticketing-systems - if anyone has experience with these? You mean a logging system ? where an email is sent in and then logged into a ticketing system for someone to deal with ?

- Does anyone have any email success stories? As in, it's helped you achieve something you couldn't without. - It's changed the way most companies work, prior to email if you wanted to send someone a document you would need to print a hard copy and send it or fax it, both of which took ages.

- Any email nightmares? Perhaps, having to spend more than half your day dealing with them, or work out of hours to keep levels low. Someone sending a email *****ing about their boss then sending it to everyone in the company, including their boss.

The reason I ask is that I've seen a number of research pieces over the years that talk about "the death of email" - and I'm not sure if this could feasibly ever happen. Even though it's a fairly new business tool it seems to ingrained - but it does cause many problems. I'd be intrigued to hear how your views may relate or differ to this



Thanks in advance for sharing!

Email isn't a new business tool, it's been around since I started working over 20 years ago and whilst some companies were slow to adopt it these days it's pretty much used by everyone and has changed the way we work and communicate in general. Now if thats a good or bad thing is a whole different question ;-)

 

[Andy Price]

Well let's expand it to that -what are the negatives that have arisen through email culture? And in further discussion does anyone have their own ways to combat these?

My view is that it's a pretty impermeable tool - as you said, it's been around for decades now, but the amount of studies I see claiming new services or systems will be the death of email, or that the amount of time in our days email sucks up will inevitably cause some kind of backlash signals there is change afoot. I'm far from convinced largely because of the reasons you mention above.

And for the record - one of the most frustrating things (usually large) businesses can do is not have an affective email channel!

 

[Philip Hoyle]

I think that mobile phones have caused problems with emails. When both the sender and recipient were on desktops, you could see the whole email (most times) on the screen and could give a proper reply on your keyboard. Now with mobile devices, people tend to read them on the move and either forget to deal with them or give them a superficial lookover and don't take in the message or give a proper reply. It's really a lottery whether the recipient will ever open an attachment if they look at the email on the move. I think emails are turning into text messages - ok for a quick message, but rapidly becoming unhelpful for longer messages or attachments.

 

[Concept Vehicle Leasing]

At Concept HQ our rule of thumb is to have all mail put in correct folders (eg marketing, sales, london etc). This way the "Inbox" is cleared but the mail is organized and filed away. EXTREMELY USEFUL! Helps production to no end! Hope this helps.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I think that mobile phones have caused problems with emails.

Indeed there is an issue with the default Android Gmail application which truncates the text in previous emails in a thread. So if you cc someone into a conversation they are unable to fully read what has gone before. Workaround is to not use Google's crappy app that seems designed for teenagers.

On other things, it depends on the nature of the business. For us it's a vital tool, and there are some rules to using it effectively:

• Use IMAP so email is always in one place and viewable from anywhere.
• Set up email clients to copy sent items into the same folder that contains the email you are replying to.
• Use a threaded view in the email client so all parts of a conversation are easily accessible
• Make use of shared public folders for email that concerns more than one person.

For specific things ticket systems work well, we use a ticket system for all support issues. It works better because:

• It's clear who has taken ownership of something
• It's easy to see history either in that ticket or in tickets from the same requestor
• Automated responses reassure the requestor that their issue is being dealt with.
• The system won't let you forget to respond.

 

[charcinders]

And for the record - one of the most frustrating things (usually large) businesses can do is not have an affective email channel!

Oh, I'd agree with that. What's even more annoying is when they give you a contact email address or an enquiry form and then totally ignore them.

My other pet hate is when you buy one widget from a company and they automatically put you on their mailing list for life.

Apart from that I love email, I couldn't function without it. I'm not keen on phone calls on non-trivial subjects where I have to think - I can't think and talk at the same time! I like the fact that email gives me time to mull over every response. It's great for long, detailed, technical discussions, which I have a lot of with customers. Actually I'm in the middle of one of those with a customer in Taiwan. I wouldn't fancy having to do that by phone.

 

[charcinders]

I just thought of some other annoying things that people do with email:
1. Send a one line email with a page of legal guff automatically tacked onto the bottom of it, repeated on every reply.
2. Send emails with huge image files attached, when usually the image could have been reduced to about 5% of the size.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I just thought of some other annoying things that people do with email:
1. Send a one line email with a page of legal guff automatically tacked onto the bottom of it, repeated on every reply.
2. Send emails with huge image files attached, when usually the image could have been reduced to about 5% of the size.

And the "Do you really need to print this?" and variations.

It's none of your business what I choose to print!

 

[puresilva]

I like email in general - it's asynchronous - sender and receiver don't have to be engaged at the same time, and it can be as detailed as you like.

As to how stressed your inbox makes you - I used to treat it almost like a relay - someone emails me, I must email them back as soon as possible. But this only causes disruption - with that mindset, you see 5 new emails, and suddenly your work is interrupted with the need to read and reply immediately. Now I minimise the amount of times I look at the inbox.

Having said that, sometimes it's just better (and quicker) to pick up the phone with certain issues where a realtime conversation is better.

 

[japancool]

Emails that have read notifications on them.

I make it a point never to send a notification that I've read an e-mail. I'm sure the sender would like to know but how I treat my correspondence is my business.

 

[puresilva]

Emails that have read notifications on them.

I often get these from individuals offering SEO services for some reason. I then see they're using some anonymous gmail address, no link to any kind of company website, and they want to know when I'm reading their email address....I think that's more to do with checking if an email is valid or not i.e. expect more spam if you accept the read receipt.

 

[Andy Price]

I always decline to notify out of principle. I don't know what that principle is, but it definitely exists. It might be because I'm rarely in the position to start dealing with an email straight away - if they know you've read it and you haven't responded it's just inviting them to call up which I often find more of a disruption, because it takes you out of the computer environment entirely.

Two things that I find frustrating:

1. People that write their email essentially in the subject line, and leave the body empty. I can't quite put my finger on why this is so frustrating.

2. When you get copied in on group emails and your inbox explodes - the majority of the time you wonder why you're included. I liked KM-Tiger's idea about using shared public folders for email that concerns more than one person.

Do you think that email became prevalent so quickly and as such habits formed before best practices could arise? There's not much you can do in regards to communicating with customers, but would you ever draw up an email policy internally for your business with tips on how to use email efficiently?

 

[Bobadob]

Loving this thread! Thanks for starting it.
There are loads of really good articles on "inbox management" and the best one advised clearing your emails at the beginning of the day, ignoring them until the middle of the day and then again clear them at the end of the day and break your email time to set chunks, so that you actually got time away form looking at your inbox. The whole point of an email is that you send the communication and then expect a reply in due course. if you want an answer now then you call someone.
Things which bug me - read receipts and emailing in text speak (drives me crackers). I got an email from a client which just said "K" - i mean who is so lazy they cant write "ok" - that is idleness to the max!

 

[Gecko001]

I find the biggest problem with email is the email forwarders. You start working on a project with a client and then you get deluged with forwarded or cc'ed emails, most of which are irrelevant to me.

 

[Socio South West]

The days of emailing lists are fast coming to an end as far as I can tell. This week I heard of a major organisation deciding that they are going back to one snail mailshot of their membership (about 10k members) rather than three e-shots.

There's just too much of it coming in and too many ways to siphon off anything from a membership list - If you are using eshots I think the message has to be condensed into the subject line to stand any chance of getting it read.

 

[Elliottc26]

Hi all,

Interesting discussion here...

For me, if an email is giving to me, say from a client, it gets read as a priority and am happy to send a read receipt.

If it is trying to take from me, say an advert, it gets deleted. I will always search for what I need (get that web copy and SEO up to scratch!).

As far as Direct Mail goes:

1. DON'T use email - it's very ineffective overall, I don't recommend it
2. DO USE mailshots - very affective if written and designed well, goes in the bin if not

 

[Alan]

Email isn't a new business tool, it's been around since I started working over 20 years ago and whilst some companies were slow to adopt it these days it's pretty much used by everyone and has changed the way we work and communicate in general. Now if thats a good or bad thing is a whole different question ;-)

lol email is actually been around for nearly 50 years on private networks.

Although of course really took off once the internet was created.

Before email we had two main mediums
1. the office memo private networks
2 letters

These used to be typed.

Before the type writer, they were written by pen.

Before the pen they were written with quills.

Will something replace email? Probably, no definately.

What? No idea - thought transfer?

Technology moves on.

 

[iBusiness Forums]

Hi all -

I (very) recently intro'd myself in the newbies forum but I thought I'd get going with contributing to the discussion.

As I mention in that post I'm going to be contributing some articles to the Business Zone site and that I'd probably be asking your thoughts on a number of topics.

The first one I'm intrigued to hear about is email. Are you the type of person that strives towards an inbox zero scenario or do you let it run? Do you feel email makes you more productive, and saves time, or is it the bane of your life and you despise the necessary Sunday evening clear out so you're Monday morning is a few percent easier to deal with?

Essentially I'm asking:

- Does email stress you out?
- Could you ever do without email?
- What do you think of email-systems, like ticketing-systems - if anyone has experience with these?
- Does anyone have any email success stories? As in, it's helped you achieve something you couldn't without.
- Any email nightmares? Perhaps, having to spend more than half your day dealing with them, or work out of hours to keep levels low.

The reason I ask is that I've seen a number of research pieces over the years that talk about "the death of email" - and I'm not sure if this could feasibly ever happen. Even though it's a fairly new business tool it seems to ingrained - but it does cause many problems. I'd be intrigued to hear how your views may relate or differ to this

Thanks in advance for sharing!

Hi Andy,

Wow, you seem to have a lot of questions about email.

1) No. Email does not stress me out
2) Now? I don;t think so. Email has been necessary for today's correspondence
3) No, I don't know what you mean by that.
4) I think I pretty have "normal" experience with email. Well, it made me achieve my work daily
5) Not really.

Hope that does not happen.

 

[Nala]

Ah email!

Fine if people reply, what winds me up - when people don't bother to!

The read receipt has been mentioned, and I'm not over keen on them, after all I will reply usually within 24 hrs to an email, and probably a lot quicker, so there shouldn't be a need to add them.

One company I had the misfortune of using would completely ignore emails from me as a customer. I thought that maybe they might not be getting through after a number had been sent and suitable delays left (we're talking weeks), so I started attaching read receipts, the result was I got a read receipt back usually within 24hrs - but still no reply!

At the end of the business relationship I resorted to the phone instead - my command of Anglo-Saxon expletives was used to it's fullest extent in getting the point across to the director over the many incompetent practices of the company concerned not just the emails which were the tip of the iceberg.

It's good to send emails and get responses back fairly quickly but this basic task seems to be beyond a lot of people.

This of course excludes spam type emails - they get binned.

 

[Luolou]

I do sometimes ask for read receipts. This Is to ensure an invoice or quote I have sent has been received. I do find It a little odd that you can 'opt out' of sending a read receipt - almost seems like a pointless option to have if people can opt out ( although I do too if it's a sales email)

I love email because it is often easier to explain something in writing, and like others have said, the recipient reads it when they have the time to digest the information, rather than taking a phone call at what may not be a really convenient time, therefore not being totally focused on the conversation.

I don't like the way that emails always appear in reverse when you print a whole conversation ... I want to read the first email first, not the last one, so I can understand he whole thread!