When emails misfire
This week, I emailed my IT-help person 4 questions.
He replied with a cut-and-paste of information that allowed me (with AI's help) to work out the answer to only the first question.
The last line in his email was "If you have any further questions please ask".
I felt cheeky, so I replied "Yes, I had 3 other questions for you. Repeated here".
(And you thought I was so sweet.)
What went wrong?
I thought my email was good.
I used headings-and-bullets formatting.
Each question was a bold heading.
My subject line was "Your help please with a new business laptop".
If I was being picky with myself, I could have also:
numbered the questions
added '4 questions' to the subject line.
But my big error?
I didn't consider his context.
His job is to drive from house to house, fixing people's computers.
That means:
he's answering emails from his phone or iPad
a stressed-out client is in the background, annoyed that he's distracted by his device while he's on the clock for them
or he's in his car trying to smash out an answer before his next appointment.
There's a very good chance he saw my first screenful and hit reply without ever scrolling.
Was he inconsiderate, thoughtless, or unprofessional?
No. He was busy.
He did what we all do when we're strapped for time and using a small device: see question, send information. Next.
What can I do next time?
Next time I'll email him only one question.
When I get the answer, I'll have the info I need to phone someone at the head office and ask my other questions. They're best able to help me get the whole job done.
Why am I taking you, step by painful step, through my thinking process?
Because of Anne-Marie Chisnall. She's the Deputy Chief Executive at Write Group and drops pearls of wisdom like she owns an oyster factory.
She says "If your writing doesn't work, assume you're the problem, not the reader".
She taught me to use every writing fail as a chance to learn how to communicate better.
That's this week's writing tip.
It's easy (and natural) to blame your reader when you get a half-baked answer back, or no answer at all.
It's much more useful to think "What could I have done differently to get what I needed?"
✨ Sign up for regular writing tips – get new tips direct to your inbox every 2 weeks
✨ Check out my Write Better Emails course, where I’'ll teach you a simple email formula to get faster replies.
✨ Look into the School of unProfessional Writing to learn about plain language at your own pace