E-mail vs Telephone Call/Office Visit

When should you send an e-mail?  When should you call or visit a co-worker in person? 

An e-mail says "Hey, I need your help with this, but know that you might be busy with other things right now.  Can you please get to this when you have a minute & get back to me?"

A phone call or office visit says "Hey, I'm sure you're not doing anything more important right now than waiting for me to contact you with my issue. Even if you are doing something, can you stop that and focus on me right now?"

An e-mail says "I am going to explain everything that's going on so that we can have a record of it should we have to review this issue again in the future"

A phone call or office visit says "I'm sure we'll remember this discussion a year from now when we talk of this again.  Nothing ever goes on around here.  No need for backup of any kind. And, this way, if things go wrong, I can say that I said something else right now. "

As you might surmise - I much prefer e-mail.  I feel it's a more respectful, organized way of communicating in a business setting.  Phone calls & visits are great for building relationships, for brainstorming, for getting general advice.  But, when discussing specific issues, an e-mail is a much better way of doing business.  

E-Mail Basics

E-mail is a very robust business tool!  But, there are definitely ways to make it work better for you and for your company.  I'm sure we'll come back to this topic many times, in one way or another, but let's start with some of the basics.

To?  CC?  BCC?

The 'To' field should include everyone who you are directly communicating.  

• Do you have a question that needs answering?  Make sure that the person or people who might be able to answer it are listed in the 'To' field 
• Do you have an answer for someone or information that someone needs?  Make sure that the 'To' field shows the name of the person or people who need to hear what you have to say

The 'CC' field should include everyone who might want to hear what it is that is being discussed, but who does not really need to join in the conversation

• Are you having a discussion about a project that someone else is also responsible for?  Be sure to 'CC' the people who might not be directly involved in the conversation, but who might want to know how things are being decided for future reference.  
• For example: If the bookkeeper and the office manager are discussing charges on an account, the client's account manager might want to know what's going on before they have their next conversation with the client. 

The 'BCC' field should be used when you want to hide the names & e-mail addresses that the e-mail was sent to from other people that the e-mail was sent to.  

• Want to secretly copy a co-worker on a ridiculous conversation you are having with another co-worker?  Well, first think about whether that's really the kind of person you want to be and whether you ever want it getting out that you were gossiping about co-workers.  
• Want to send a message to a large group of people who might not want everyone else on the e-mail to know their e-mail address or that they are on that particular distribution list?  This is an appropriate time to use 'BCC'.  Put your own e-mail address in the 'To' field.  Then, put everyone else's email in the 'BCC' field.  

Reply or Reply All?

This is a pretty simple but also pretty important decision.  Making the right choice aids in effective, efficient, productive workplace conversations.  

Think carefully about why the original sender included the people that they included when they sent you the e-mail and consider whether you should include them yourself. 

• If you think that the other people who were originally sent the e-mail might want or need to know what you say in your reply, then choose 'Reply All'.  When you do that, the 'To' and 'CC' fields are automatically filled in with all of the appropriate e-mail addresses. 
• If you want your reply to go *only* to the person who sent you the e-mail, then choose 'Reply''. 
• If you want your reply to go to most of the people that were originally sent the message, but maybe leave out a few people or add a few people, choose 'Reply All', but then go back into the 'To' and 'CC' fields to make changes as needed.  
• For example: The conversation is in reply to a client, so the original e-mail included the client.  But, your reply is going to include proprietary information or internal conversation that the client doesn't need to be a part of.  You could 'Reply All' but then delete the client's e-mail address.  
• Another example: The conversation is about a topic that you are not an expert on, but that you know another co-worker can help with.  You could choose 'Reply All', then go into the 'To' field and add that other co-worker's e-mail address.  If you do this, be sure to add a note in the body of the message saying that you have added that person and why you have done so.