Although you may not use email to communicate with your patients, you likely do use it to correspond with your business partners. In 2013, the majority of email traffic came from business email, which accounts for more than 100 billion emails sent and received per day, according to a report by The Radicati Group, a technology market research firm.
While email is an efficient way to connect with your vendors, wholesalers, service providers and others, there are important rules to follow when using this means of communication. Are you making these five common emailing blunders?
1. Failing to proofread
A simple proofread of your email will keep you from looking unprofessional or careless. Your email doesn’t have to be perfectly written. Just check for simple grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes before you hit send. Don’t use abbreviations or acronyms like you would when sending a text message, and make sure the caps lock is off. An email written entirely in uppercase makes readers feel like you’re shouting at them. Also, it’s always a good idea to double check that you’re sending the email to the correct person.
2. Not using a standard signature
Your email signature not only tells readers who you are, but it also conveys a sense of professionalism—or not. The key to a professional-looking email signature is to keep it simple. Use black text in an easy-to-read font. Skip colors, creative fonts and graphics. Keep the signature short. (About four lines is the standard.) Use pipes (|) or colons (:) to condense information into fewer lines. Include just your name, title, pharmacy name and any extra contact information you want to use, such as phone number, pharmacy address and pharmacy website. If you want to add a little style, make the font size of your name slightly larger than the rest of the information.
3. Choosing a vague subject line
The subject line of your email tells the reader—at a glance—what the email is about. We all receive tons of emails every day. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Don’t make your readers work to figure out what your email is about or miss it altogether because of a poor subject line. Make your subject line detailed and to the point. For example, don’t use “Subject: Question!” Instead, use “Subject: Software upgrade question.”
4. Writing too casually
When unsure, write with a more formal style when drafting your email. After all, it is a business correspondence. Unless you know the person well, keep away from a casual tone. Also remember to keep your message focused and as concise as possible. Nobody wants to read a lengthy email. If you have multiple points, try using bullet points to separate them.
5. Using a Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail email address
Using email services like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail for business correspondence makes you—and your business—look unprofessional. The standard today is to have an email address with the same domain as your website. For example, john@midtownpharmacy.com instead of john232@gmail.com. Contact your website provider to see if you can get email addresses set up with your website’s domain. If you must use a Yahoo or Gmail account, make sure to use a professional name. Gone are the days when rxgirl523@yahoo.com and baseballguy2@gmail.com were acceptable email addresses. Simply use a version of your first and last name as your email address.
