E-mail: use, abuse and (effective) remedies

For several years now[1] e-mail users have been complaining about the number of messages they receive,[2] their poor quality and the length of time needed to answer them since the value of the information they contain is disproportionate to the time required to process them.

The proliferation of e-mail messages is not only connected to spamming and updates from social media. It is increasingly evident that there is something wrong with the way we use this tool.

Maybe for this reason there is a wide range of handbooks dealing with the correct use of the e-mail, mainly published by public institutions and private companies, providing information and advice on how to improve the use of this tool, both from an information technology and message handling point of view.

Few of these manuals propose alternative solutions to the e-mail to help people use them only when needed rather than indiscriminately.

Almost no one[3] gives advice on how to plan and write messages; this is absurd, bearing in mind that the comprehensibility of messages depends largely on the quality and consequential logic of the text.

This is why Maxer has developed an instrument that addresses the various aspects of the e-mail. Using a significant sample of existing manuals as a benchmark, Tips for managing and writing e-mails suggests how to successfully manage e-mail messages  in five chapters. Three in-depth sections present techniques for effectively defining the logical and linguistic aspects. A fourth and final section deals with alternatives to e-mail messages and suggests when to use them.

Introduction

• An e-mail never substitutes the value of the human relationship
• Useless e-mails are time-wasting and cause mistakes
• An e-mail requires the same attention as any other written text
• Handling, storage and protection of e-mail messages
• E-mail: heavy, light or compressed?

In depth

• Section 1: The requirements of an e-mail
• Section 2: How to plan an e-mail
• Section 3: How to write an e-mail
• Section 4: Alternatives to e-mails.

The handbook is part of a continuous improvement programme for corporate communication and quickly generates real benefits that can easily be assessed. However, it can also be used as a tool in itself, creating an immediate improvement in e-mail quality.

Tips for managing and writing e-mails is a powerful tool to once and for all address and resolve the e-mail overload of which we are both victims and, unintentionally, the cause.