Email remains an essential piece to corporate communications. Note that, “corporate communications” and not personal communication. However, we all do send out personal emails but those should not outnumber the number of corporate emails. Some of us work in teams and sending group emails is a norm. Sometimes we deal with difficult clients and being the humans that we are we do take toll and vent out among each other. Sadly, by sheer accident, what was meant to be an internal comment does find a way out of the organisation. And the consequences are costly.

A real example to learn from:

Once in my career we dealt with a client that was very hard to deal with, was rude much of the time, and extremely demanding. One day we received an email from the client with some pretty demanding requests. Our team leader sent out an email that was only meant for our internal team. However, the team leader forgot to remove the client from the recipient’s list. A minute later there was a frantic attempt to recall the email. TOO LATE. It had gone out to the customer. The email read:

“The wicked witch of the west is back on her broomstick. Which one of you wants to respond?”

You can guess what happened to our team leader. His contract was terminated. Like that was enough, the client took their business elsewhere and there was substantial damage done to the brand.

Now here are a few tips of "do's and don'ts" to help you avoid these types of career damaging emails.

Do: Only reply to all when necessary. Remove those on the thread that do not pertain to your response. Most people feel they get enough email as it is. So, sending them unwanted mail will only annoy them.

Do Not: Reply to all every single time you receive an email with multiple people on the thread.

Do: Be professional in your communications. Use good grammar and choose your words carefully. If writing is not one of your strong points, consider typing it in Word first, and then copying and pasting it into an email. Words' spell check and built in grammar help will alleviate most errors.

Do Not: Send poorly written emails. It makes you look unprofessional, uneducated, and gives off the impression that you do not care.

Do: Respond within 24 hours or sooner even if you don't have an answer right away. At least let the sender know that you have received their message, and set an expectation for a follow up.

Do Not: Take days, weeks, or months to RESPOND!

Do: Send email when you are in a good frame of mind.

Do Not: Send email when you are mad! Wait a while until cooler heads prevail before firing off any potential "zingers."

Do: Send email at appropriate times of the day.

Do Not: Send email late at night or after you have been drinking. For obvious reasons this can be a complete train wreck. I have seen it happen!

Do: Be very careful when replying from your mobile. The auto correct feature can be a killer, and lead to some real embarrassing emails.

Do Not: Send email without first reading it over a few times. Especially when sending from your smart device.

Now I'd love to hear your email blunder stories from your career. I am sure there must be some good ones out there! Please also feel free to share your thoughts on corporate email etiquette.