Samples of business letters. Ethics of business correspondence

What is email? In the modern business world this is:

Your face. It is with the help of email that you can create a positive image in the eyes of the counterparty or spoil the first impression.
Your working tool. A lot of communication with the outside world takes place via email. Therefore, if you are proficient in this instrument, you can make your life a lot easier.
A powerful distraction. The outside world is trying to get at you, distract you and lead you astray through email.

From this perspective, let’s look at working with email. Let's start with something simple.

Formatting a letter

I use the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, so I will use it as an example. Let's create a new letter and go from top to bottom through the list of fields.

To whom. Copy. Hidden copy

Some may not know, but "To" in Mozilla can be changed to "Cc" or "Bcc".

To whom: we write the main recipient or several recipients separated by a semicolon.
Copy: we write to someone who should read the letter, but from whom we do not expect a reaction.
Hidden copy: we are writing to someone who should read the letter, but should remain unknown to the other recipients of the letter. It is especially appropriate to use for mass mailing of business letters, such as notifications.

Wrong in mass mailings, indicate recipients using the “Copy” or “To” fields. Several times a year I receive letters that list 50–90 recipients in the “Cc” field. There is a violation of privacy. Not all of your recipients need to know who else you are working with on a similar topic. It’s good if these are people who know each other. What if there are competing companies on the list that don’t know about each other? At a minimum, you need to be prepared for unnecessary explanations, and at maximum, to terminate cooperation with one of them. Do not do it this way.

Letter subject

Professional mailing services often write (sometimes sensibly) about the importance of the email subject line on their corporate blogs. But most often we are talking about sales letters, where the subject of the letter solves the problem “the email should be opened.”

We are discussing daily business correspondence. Here the theme solves the problem “the letter and its author should be easily identified and then found.” Moreover, your diligence will return to you in the form of karma of numerous response letters, only with prefixes Re: or FWD, among which you will have to look for the desired letter on the topic.

Twenty letters is the volume of one-day correspondence for a middle manager. I’m not talking about entrepreneurs and business owners at all; their number of letters sometimes goes off scale at 200 or more per day. Therefore once again: do not send emails with an empty subject.

So, how to correctly formulate the subject line of an email?

Mistake #1 : Only the company name in the subject. For example, “Sky” and that’s it. Firstly, you are probably not the only one from your company communicating with this counterparty. Secondly, such a topic does not bring any meaning, because the name of your company is already visible from the address. Thirdly, guess what your own mailbox will look like with this approach to correspondence? Something like this.

Is it convenient to search on such topics?

Mistake #2 : flashy, selling headline. It's great if you know how to write such headlines. But is it appropriate to use these skills in business correspondence? Remember the purpose of a business email subject line: not to sell, but to provide identification and search.

Text of the letter

There are many writing guides for different occasions. For example, Maxim Ilyakhov, Alexander Amzin and other masters of words have a lot of useful information. I advise you to read their articles, at least to improve general literacy and improve the overall style of written speech.

In the process of writing a letter, we must make several decisions sequentially.

A matter of politeness . At the beginning of the letter, you can blur into pleasantries or even tenderness in the spirit of “My dear Rodya, it’s been more than two months since I talked to you in writing, from which I myself suffered and even didn’t sleep some nights, thinking.” Very polite and very costly, both in terms of time to write such an introduction, and in terms of the interlocutor’s time to read it. Correspondence is business, remember? Not an essay in the epistolary genre for a competition or a letter to Raskolnikov’s mother, but business correspondence.

We respect our time and the recipient's!

It only makes sense to introduce yourself and recall the circumstances of your acquaintance in the first letter sent after a fleeting meeting at an exhibition. If this is a continuation of cooperation or ongoing correspondence, in the first letter of the day we write: “Hello, Ivan”, in the second and subsequent ones: “Ivan, ...”.

Appeal . I have always been concerned about the question of who to address in a letter if there are several recipients. Recently I wrote a letter addressed to three girls named Anna. Without any doubt, I wrote “Hello, Anna” and didn’t worry. But such luck is not always the case.

What if there are three or even seven recipients and they do not have the same name? You can list them by name: “Good afternoon, Rodion, Pulcheria, Avdotya and Pyotr Petrovich.” But it's long and takes time. You can write: “Hello, colleagues!”

For myself, I use the rule of addressing by name the person in the “To” field. And don’t contact those in the copy at all. This rule also allows you to more accurately determine (one!) the addressee of the letter and the purpose of this letter.

Citation . Often correspondence is a chain of letters with questions and answers - in a word, a dialogue. It is considered good form not to delete the correspondence history and to write your response at the top of the quoted text, so that when you return to this correspondence a week later, you can easily read the dialogue from top to bottom, descending by date.

For some reason, the default setting in Mozilla is “Place cursor after quoted text.” I recommend changing it in the “Tools” → “Account Options” → “Composing and Addressing” menu. It must be so.

Purpose of the letter . There are two types of business letters:

when we simply inform the interlocutor (for example, a report on the work done for the month);
and when we want something from the interlocutor. For example, so that he approves the attached invoice for payment.

As a rule, there are many times more encouraging letters than reporting letters. If we want to achieve something from the interlocutor, it is very important to say this in a letter in plain text. The call to action should be accompanied by a name and be the last sentence in the letter.

Wrong : “Porfiry Petrovich, I know who hacked the old woman to death.”

Right : “Porfiry Petrovich, it was I who hacked the old woman to death, please take measures to arrest me, I’m tired of suffering!”

Why should the correspondent think for you what to do with this letter? After all, he may make the wrong decision.

Signature in the text . She must be. Moreover, all email clients allow you to configure automatic signature substitution, for example the classic “Sincerely, …”. In Mozilla, this is done in the “Tools” → “Account Options” menu.

Whether or not to write contacts in the signature is a personal matter for everyone. But if you are in any way connected with sales, be sure to write. Even if the deal does not take place as a result of communication, in the future you will be easily found using the contacts from the signature.

Finally, one more feature of the letter body for those interlocutors who don’t like (can’t, don’t want, don’t have time) to answer your letters. Please indicate the default in the body of the letter. For example, “Porfiry Petrovich, if you don’t come to arrest me before 12:00 Friday, then I consider myself amnestied.” Of course, the deadline must be realistic (you should not send the text from the example on Friday at 11:50). The recipient must be physically able to read and act on your letter. Such “silence” relieves you of responsibility for the interlocutor’s failure to respond. As always, you need to approach the use of this feature wisely. If a person responds to your letters on time and regularly, such an ultimatum may, if not offend him, then stress him out a little or lead to a decision not to answer the letter right now, but make you wait until Friday.

Attachments

Letters often come with attachments: resumes, commercial proposals, estimates, schedules, scans of documents - a very convenient tool and at the same time a source of popular errors.

Error : huge investment size. I often receive emails with attachments up to 20 MB in size. As a rule, these are scans of some documents in TIFF format, with a resolution of 600dpi. The correspondent's email program will almost certainly freeze for several minutes in a futile attempt to load a preview of the attachment. And God forbid the recipient tries to read this letter on a smartphone...

Personally, I immediately delete such letters. Don't want your email to end up in the trash before it's read? Check the size of the investment. It is recommended that it be no more than 3 MB.

What to do if it exceeds?

Try reconfiguring your scanner to a different format and resolution. For example, PDF and 300dpi produce quite readable scans.
Think about programs such as WinRar or 7zip archiver. Some files compress perfectly.
What to do if the attachment is huge and you can’t compress it? For example, an almost empty accounting database weighs 900 MB. Cloud information storage will come to the rescue: Dropbox, Google Drive and the like. Some services, such as Mail.ru, automatically convert huge attachments into links to cloud storage. But I prefer to manage my information stored in the cloud myself, so I don’t welcome automation from Mail.ru.

And one more not entirely obvious recommendation about investments - their Name . It must be understandable and acceptable to the recipient. Once we in the company were preparing a commercial proposal in the name of... let it be Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. I received a letter from the manager with a draft CP for approval, and the attachment included a file named “ForFedi.docx”. The manager who sent me this had a dialogue that went something like this:

Dear manager, are you personally ready to approach this respected man and call him Fedya to his face?

Somehow, no, he’s a respected man, everyone calls him by his first name and patronymic.

Why did you name the attachment “For Fedi”? If I send it to him right now, do you think he will buy axes from us using this CP?

I was going to rename it later...

Why prepare a time bomb - the refusal of a potential client - or create extra work for yourself by renaming the file? Why not immediately name the attachment correctly: “For Fyodor Mikhailovich.docx” or even better - “KP_Sky_Axes.docx”.

So, we have more or less sorted out email as a “face”. Let's move on to looking at email as a tool for effective work and talk about its distraction component.

Working with letters

Email is a powerful distraction. As with any distraction, email needs to be dealt with by tightening rules and introducing work schedules.

At a minimum, you need to turn off ALL notifications about mail arrivals. If the email client is configured by default, you will be notified with a sound signal, an icon next to the clock will blink, and a preview of the letter will be shown. In a word, they will do everything to first tear you away from painstaking work, and then plunge you into the abyss of unread letters and unviewed mailings - minus an hour or two from your life.

Some people have powerful willpower that allows them not to be distracted by notifications, but ordinary people are better off not tempting fate and turning them off. In Mozilla Thunderbird, this is done through the menu "Tools" → "Settings" → "General" → "When new messages appear."

If there are no notifications, how can you understand that a letter has arrived?

Very simple. You yourself, consciously, set aside time to sort through your mail, open your email client and see all the unread messages. This can be done twice a day, for example, at lunch and in the evening, or during forced downtime, for example, in traffic jams.

People often ask, what about response times and urgent letters? I answer: you do not have urgent letters in your mail. Unless you work in the customer support department (this department has its own rules for working with mail).

If there are urgent letters, the sender will notify you about this through other channels - telephone, SMS, Skype. Then you will consciously go into your email client and process urgent mail. All time management gurus (for example, Gleb Arkhangelsky with his “Time Drive”) declare a standard response to email within 24 hours. This is a normal rule of good manners - not to expect instant replies via email from your interlocutor. If there is an urgent letter, notify about it through faster communication channels.

So, we turned off notifications and now turn on the email client according to our schedule.

What to do when we go to the mail and engage in an activity called “sorting out email”? Where is the beginning and end of this work?

I have heard a lot about the zero inbox system, but, unfortunately, I have not met a single person using it. I had to reinvent my wheel. There are articles on this topic on Lifehacker. For example, " ". Below I will talk about the zero inbox system in my interpretation. I would be grateful if GTD gurus would comment and add or improve the described system.

It is important to understand and accept that email is not a task scheduler or archive for your activities. Therefore, the Inbox folder should always be empty. Once you start sorting through your inbox, don't stop or be distracted by anything until you've emptied this folder.

What to do with emails in your inbox? You need to go through each letter sequentially and delete it. Yes, just highlight and press Delete on your keyboard. If you can’t bring yourself to delete the letter, you’ll have to decide what to do with it.

Can you answer it in three minutes? Do I need to answer it? Yes, it is necessary, and the answer will take no more than three minutes, then answer immediately.
You must answer, but preparing an answer will take more than three minutes. If you use a task scheduler that allows you to convert an email into a task, turn the email into a task and forget about it for a while. For example, I use the absolutely wonderful service Doit.im. It allows you to generate a personal email address: you forward the letter to it, and it turns into a task. But if you don’t have a task scheduler, move the letter to the “0_Run” subfolder.
After quickly replying to a letter, turning it into a task, or simply reading it, you need to decide what to do with this message next: delete it or send it to one of the folders for long-term storage.

Here are the long-term storage folders I have.

0_Execute. I don’t have such a folder, but if you don’t have a planner, I repeat, you can put letters that require detailed work here. This folder also needs to be cleaned regularly, but with a thoughtful approach at a time specially allocated for this.
1_Ref. Here I put letters with background information: welcome letters with logins from various web services, tickets for upcoming flights, and so on.
2_Projects. An archive of correspondence on partners and projects with which there are current relationships is stored here. Naturally, a separate folder has been created for each project or partner. In the partner’s folder I put letters not only from his employees, but also letters from Neb employees related to this partner. Very convenient: if necessary, all correspondence on the project is at hand in a couple of clicks.
3_Museum. This is where I put those letters that it would be a pity to delete, and the benefit of them is not obvious. Also, folders with closed projects from “2_Projects” migrate here. In short, the “Museum” stores the first candidates for removal.
4_Documents. Here are letters with electronic samples of documents that may be useful in the future for accounting, for example, reconciliation reports from clients, tickets for trips taken. The folder has many similarities with the “2_Projects” and “1_Reference” folders, only accounting information is stored in it, and management information is stored in the “2_Projects” folder. In “4_Documents” there is dead information, and in “2_Projects” there is live information.
5_Knowledge. Here I only put really useful newsletters that I want to return to after a while for inspiration or to find solutions.

There are other email client settings that are important for the operation of this system. First, by default in Thunderbird there is a “Mark messages as read” checkbox. I prefer to do this consciously, so down with the flag! To do this, go to the menu “Tools” → “Settings” → “Advanced” → “Reading and Display”.

Secondly, we use filters . Previously, I actively used filters that automatically forwarded letters to the appropriate folders based on the sender's address. For example, letters from a lawyer were moved to the “Lawyer” folder. I abandoned this approach for several reasons. First: letters from a lawyer in 99% of cases relate to some project or partner, which means they must be moved to the folder of this partner or project. Second: I decided to add awareness. You yourself must decide where a specific letter should be stored, and it is more convenient to look for unprocessed messages in only one place - in the inbox. Now I use filters only for organizing automatic regular letters from various systems into folders, that is, letters that do not require me to make decisions. Filters in Mozilla Thunderbird are configured in the menu “Tools” → “Message Filters”.

So, with the right approach, email should take from 10 to 60 minutes a day, depending on the volume of correspondence.

Yes, and one more thing. Have you already turned off notifications about the arrival of new letters? ;)

Business communication cannot be imagined without correspondence, since a personal meeting to resolve cooperation issues is not always possible. Most pressing problems business correspondence

Business communication cannot be imagined without correspondence, since a personal meeting to resolve cooperation issues is not always possible. Business correspondence helps solve most pressing problems in a short time, but failure to follow the rules of etiquette or illogical construction of a letter can harm partnerships or alienate a potential client. As in formal negotiations, there are certain rules: the format of the letter and the style of communication.

General rules for conducting business correspondence

1. Before writing a letter, decide on its characteristics:

type of letter (covering, guarantee, order, reminder, notice, etc.; presentation letter or inviting a response);

degree of accessibility for the addressee (whether you can state all the necessary points in one letter or will you need a second, clarifying one);

urgency of delivery (if the letter is urgent, it is better to send it by registered mail or by e-mail).

2. Create a letter using existing templates, based on its type, and also rely on GOST R 6.30-2003. “Unified documentation systems. Unified system of organizational and administrative documentation. Documentation requirements."

3. Any business letter has the following general structure:

name of the sending organization;
date of writing;
recipient's address, indication of a specific correspondent;
opening address;
an indication of the topic and purpose of the letter;
main text;
conclusion (politeness formula);
sender's signature;
indication of the application and distribution of copies (if any).

4. When preparing a business letter, use the text editor Microsoft Word:

use Times New Roman typeface, font size 12-14 points, line spacing – 1-2 points;

Place the page numbers of the letter at the bottom right side;

When printing text on A4 format, use 1.5–2 line spacing, A5 format or less - one line spacing. Details are always typed with one line spacing.

5. If you are speaking on behalf of an organization and intend to send a printed letter, be sure to use letterhead, since its presence will be the calling card of your company. Take special care when preparing an official form; this skill should be mandatory for any office employee.

6. For international correspondence, the letter must be written in the language of the addressee or in English(as the most common in business relationships).

7. Maintain a correct, business-like tone. Begin the letter with an address, which, depending on the degree of your closeness with the correspondent, can begin with either the words “Dear + Full Name” or “Dear + Full Name.” Remember, the words in the address or in the indication of the addressee must in no case be abbreviated (for example, “respected” as “uv.” or “to the head of the department” as “head of the department”) - these are the rules of business etiquette. Always end your letter with a thank you for your cooperation. Before the signature there should be the phrase “With respect, …” or “Sincerely yours, …”. Addressing “you” in official correspondence is unacceptable, even if you maintain friendly relations with the correspondent.

8. Choose your vocabulary carefully, avoid inaccuracies and ambiguous phrases, and excessive use of professionalisms. The letter must be understandable.

9. Divide the contents of the letter into meaningful paragraphs so that it is not cumbersome and difficult for the recipient to understand. Follow the rule: the first and last paragraphs should contain no more than four printed lines, and the rest - no more than eight.

10. Respond to business emails according to accepted etiquette: for a written request - within 10 days after receipt; for letters sent by fax or email - within 48 hours, excluding weekends.

Intra-organizational business correspondence

Business correspondence between company employees is more simplified compared to correspondence sent to a third party.

be concise;
be of a business nature;
the letter must indicate the date;
At the end of the letter there is a politeness formula and a signature.

An example of intra-organizational business correspondence could be a letter of congratulations on behalf of the manager or team, addressed to the hero of the day or an employee who has received a promotion.

When discussing projects in writing, only a few mandatory elements of a business letter are usually used - an indication of the topic, an appeal, a brief statement of the essence of the issue and a politeness formula with a printed signature.

Remember that the form of the letter and the required template must be selected based on the level of business correspondence and the type of information that you want to provide to the addressee.

Today it is quite difficult to find a company that has not used the achievements of scientific and technical progress in its interpersonal communications practice: e-mail, ICQ, fax, mobile communications. And if we have a greater understanding of the rules of business correspondence and telephone conversations, then few people have an idea of how to behave on the Internet. But here, too, there are certain rules of etiquette, which are regulated by the “Netiquette”.

The main rule of “Setiket” is the same as in any other etiquette: behave in such a way that you are easy to understand, do not create problems for others and do not interfere with normal dialogue, even if it is conducted via e-mail. Always behave in such a way as not to offend the person with whom you are corresponding over the Internet.

In his article “50 Practical Rules of Business Network Etiquette,” Chuck Martin, President of the American consulting company The Digital Estate Group, writes: “Netiquette (network etiquette) means a set of rules of behavior and behavior adopted when using computer networks. Compliance with these rules is especially important due to the electronic environment it is impossible to separate the position of the business and the client. "The Rules of Business Network" emerged as a guide for establishing and maintaining healthy and happy relationships between a business and its customers."

In this section, we will not consider the rules of conduct on forums, blogs and chats, but will only tell you how to conduct business correspondence via email to make communication with partners, colleagues and friends more convenient and effective.

Communication style

When corresponding via email, you can skip the greetings and greetings and get straight to the point. But, if you want your email to be more formal, the author recommends using the following address formula: “Good afternoon, dear (dear) + first name, middle name, address.” And only after that should you move on to the purpose of your appeal.

Despite all the informality of communication, it is necessary to remember and follow one of the most important rules when composing emails – adherence to the principles of literacy and logic. Just because email is a fast method of communication doesn't mean it has to be sloppy. Be sure to start your sentence with a capital letter and use periods. Names and titles must begin with capital letters. Text written in lowercase only, without periods or other punctuation marks, is difficult to read. The text, written only in capitals, is generally perceived when reading as a CONTINUOUS SCREAM.

You should use spaces (blank lines) or ellipses to separate one idea from another, since they tend to act like a paragraph in an email.

Formatting an email

Many companies have a single corporate standard for formatting emails, which includes the structure of the letter itself, rules for contacting the client, signature details (full name, position, work phone numbers, email address and link to the company website). In addition, this standard may prohibit the use of emoticons that are not related to the business sphere.

In general, the structure of a business email can be represented as follows:

1. “Hat” in corporate style.

2. Greeting

4. Farewell

5. Personal signature indicating contacts.

7. Logo if necessary.

When sending an email, the following fields must be filled in:

"Subject"
"To"
"The Importance of Writing", if necessary.

When sending email messages, the recipient's e-mail address is entered in the “To” field. Sometimes there is a need to send a letter with one text to several recipients, then their addresses can be entered separated by commas. Be sure to fill in the “Subject” field, otherwise your letter may be deleted as spam. Here you should enter a few words describing the subject of the message.

Some email programs allow you to specify the importance of a message. This is simply necessary if the recipient receives a large number of letters every day. A message marked “Important” receives priority when checking mail. But you should not abuse this function. What is important will gradually lose this quality.

Email Size

The rules of the network determine the size precisely: an email should be twice as short as one written on paper. If you need to send important information containing a large volume, then it is better to write a short accompanying text in an email, and format the information itself as an attachment.

When preparing to send a large attachment exceeding 200-500 kilobytes, be sure to warn your respondent about this. It's better not to send large attachments in emails. There are many other ways to transmit large texts, photos or audio without using email. For example, through an ftp server or through a web interface.

The address book

In traditional correspondence, one had to either keep addressed envelopes or write them down. Remembering the email addresses of all your friends and partners is also not possible, and it is not necessary. To do this, any mail program has the “Address Book” function, in which you can store the e-mail of your correspondents and other contact information. When using this function, sending an email is much easier than sending a paper letter; just select the desired name in the address book and click the “send mail” button.

When an email arrives from a respondent listed in your Address Book, you will always know who exactly you received the email from, since the recorded contact will be reflected in the “From” field.

Reply to an email

To reply to a received letter, just click on the “Reply” button in your mail program. In this case, a form for a new message appears, in which the recipient’s address is automatically entered in the “To” field, and in the “Subject” field: the subject of the original letter will be given with the “Re:” mark at the beginning of the line. By this mark, your recipient will understand that you have sent him a response to a letter on a specific topic. This way, the recipient can easily recall the meaning of the correspondence.

If you are writing to friends and want your letter to comply with the Seticket rules, then edit the text of the original message, leaving only those lines that are important for understanding your answer (quote). After the usual greetings and introductory words, type below each such quotation your answer to the given sentence or question.

If this is a response to a business letter, then leave all the previous text unchanged, and write your response at the top.

Quoting is the inclusion of fragments of the source text (in this case, a letter) in a message in order to restore the essence of the content. Please note: in most email programs, the quoted fragment is highlighted with a greater-than sign (>).

Smileys

During ordinary communication, interlocutors are influenced not only and not so much by words, but by voice, intonation, facial expressions, and gestures. This is the disadvantage of communicating via email - it deprives you of the opportunity to exchange emotions. But we still managed to partially overcome this drawback. Currently, in virtual communication, including via e-mail, so-called “emoticons” (a graphic representation of your feelings) are widely used - faces made up of periods, commas, hyphens and other symbols. They are able to at least somehow emotionally color the texts. The use of emoticons makes the correspondence more lively - the author conveys not only his thoughts, but also his feelings. Here are the most common emoticons:

There are a lot of emoticons to indicate both emotions and states of a person or his appearance. Classic emoticons:

:-) smiling
:-))) laughing
:-D laughing joyfully
:-| thoughtful, neutral
:-( sad
:-/ unhappy or puzzled
:-0 surprised (mouth open)

Sometimes the nose symbol "-" is not printed for ease of typing. For example, they simply type :) or :(. Recently, the colon has often been replaced with an equal sign, for example, =) instead of :). “Nose” is usually not used in such cases. It is also common to use only opening or closing parentheses in chats. For example,)))) or (((((. The number of characters corresponds to the level of joy or sadness.

But don’t get carried away with emoticons when composing a business letter, otherwise you may gain a reputation as a frivolous person.

Electronic signature

An electronic signature is a specially created file (signature), which is a text signature. Having an electronic signature in messages is a rule of good form for business correspondence. An electronic signature is also an unobtrusive advertisement of the business. Direct advertising in letters from strangers and unfamiliar people, as a rule, is perceived negatively, but a few signature lines will be accepted loyally.

Always use a signature - it will help your respondent uniquely identify you. And be sure to include several possible ways to contact you. Usually these are phone numbers, email, fax, ICQ

Basic rules for drawing up an electronic signature:

An electronic signature should not exceed 5-6 lines.
The number of characters per line should be no more than 70.

Features of Network when sending and receiving emails

So you sent an email and you're really worried about whether it got through. And next time, for the sake of your own peace of mind, you already send a letter with notification of receipt. But according to the rules of Setiket, such a mark is a sign of disrespect and distrust of one’s partner. It is better, after sending your message by email, to call the recipient and check whether your letter arrived or not. Quite often, the following wording is used for confirmation: after the text of the main letter, before your electronic signature, the phrase is written: “Please confirm receipt of the letter by reply letter or by calling the telephone numbers indicated below.”

According to Network rules, emails must be answered. And the response time to e-mail should not exceed two days. If you need a longer time to respond to an email, it is worth explaining the reasons for the delay. It is necessary to respond to letters with damaged encoding. In this case, it is better to attach an attachment with explanations so that your correspondent is sure to be able to read it. And you must also respond to letters containing an attachment: you must confirm that the attachment arrived and opened normally.

The electronic dialogue session ends according to the rules of telephone etiquette: whoever started the correspondence first is the first to finish it.

Please note that if you do not respond to an email within 7 days, this is a clear refusal to communicate. Therefore, if you want to maintain a business relationship, you must call or send a second letter to your business partner 2-3 days after sending the email to clarify whether the information has reached him or not.

Remember that in the business world you should always respond to letters, regardless of whether they are paper or electronic. Otherwise, you may be considered an irresponsible and frivolous person, which, of course, will not have the best effect on your business reputation.

Fragment of the book “International Etiquette. Peculiarities of business etiquette in different countries." The book is being prepared for publication by the Phoenix Publishing House, Rostov-Don in 2008.

Netiquette – (English Net - network + Etiquette - etiquette) - moral rules of behavior in computer networks. Rules of behavior on the Internet, designed not to complicate the lives of others. Author's note

Smiley, smiley (English: smiley) is an ideogram depicting an emotion. Consists of various symbols, including service ones. The emoticon became widespread on the Internet and SMS. Back in 1969, Vladimir Nabokov mentioned in one of his interviews that it was worth creating a special punctuation mark to graphically display emotions. However, it was not until 1982 that Scott Fahlman was the first in the world to propose the emoticon in the form in which it is used today. Author's note.

Spam (eng. spam) - messages sent en masse to people who have not consented to receive them. Unsolicited advertising. Author's note.

Wikipedia – Free Encyclopedia, http://ru.wikipedia.org

ICQ- the name of the client program for the instant messaging network using the OSCAR protocol, developed by Mirabilis. The abbreviation “ICQ” is consonant with the English phrase “I seek you” (I am looking for you), in Russian computer slang ICQ is called “ICQ” or “Asya”. Author's note

In the modern world, business contact often begins with business correspondence - a written form of business interaction, which includes any type of correspondence (letter, message, etc.) sent by any official on his behalf and by virtue of his position.

An important aspect is compliance with certain etiquette standards. Otherwise, established connections may be severed and a client or business partner may be lost. Well-designed business correspondence contributes to the most favorable impression of you or the company.

Mastering the magic of letters is important for every person. For example, when looking for a new job: compiling and sending a resume, test tasks, cover letters, additional information about yourself, agreeing on a meeting time.

Interestingly, the rules of business correspondence that exist today were developed about 150 years ago in England.

Types of business letters

To decide how to compose a letter, you need to know the differences between its types. This will help you decide on the topic of the message and its correct design. This will help you avoid looking stupid in the eyes of an important opponent.

According to the design structure there are:

Letters of communication

This includes letters of refusal, claims, excuses, and confessions. Everything that an employee uses in the course of his professional activities.

Letters of agreement

An important type of writing. Thanks to her, the results of the meeting are summed up, agreements are formed, the time for completing tasks is determined, and both parties are convinced of the correct understanding of the contract.

Business Letter Rules

The way bloggers allow themselves to express themselves is not your choice. There is no excuse for mistakes and typos. You cannot console yourself with the difficulties of learning a language from childhood. You need to be as demanding of yourself as possible. Otherwise, it paints an unfavorable picture of your personality and education.

The peculiarity of business correspondence is that errors in the spelling of professional words are considered an indicator of a person’s incompetence in the chosen field.

Basic Rules:

Avoid using words whose exact definition you do not know. As a last resort, check their meanings in dictionaries.
Avoid using specific terminology. Some words may be unfamiliar to the interlocutor and may be misinterpreted by him. Business correspondence etiquette involves in such cases providing an explanation of terms and abbreviations.
Write in short sentences. Length and floridness of constructions are appropriate when writing a novel, and not during business negotiations.
First type the message not in the body of the letter, but in a document on your computer or online editor. A positive aspect is the automatic spelling and punctuation check of the text. This also prevents the letter from being accidentally sent to the recipient prematurely or lost due to the browser being closed or the Internet being lost. When working in Microsoft word, use autosaving of material at certain intervals.
You should avoid typing a message on your phone or tablet. There is a risk of inappropriate autocorrection.
Before sending, check for errors and the consistency of the text. It is recommended to recheck the typed text again after an hour, temporarily switching to other things and forgetting about writing it. This will help you look at the text from a different perspective, seeing all the inaccuracies.

Formatting a business letter

Special attention to detail is required when preparing and conducting correspondence. It also shows respect for your opponent and allows you to save time that could be spent on redoing the material.

The following aspects should not be neglected:

Correct filling of the subject line of the letter

If this is the first message, the title may be bright. However, if communication with the opponent already exists, the subject of the letter should be stated briefly and concisely. These are the basics of communication. They help you find the message after a while so that re-reading will be easy for both the sender and the recipient.

Citation

The message you send may contain questions that you must answer. It makes sense to answer them, quoting each one separately. When sending a letter with several forwardings, it is worth using numbering and breaking the text into paragraphs. This way it will be clear to the interlocutor what question you are answering.

Excessive quotation chains create a sense of chaos in communications. However, if there is a need to return to previously sent messages or remind the interlocutor of something, it is worth doing. In particular, when it comes to budget, service package, and time.

Take into account all information received

When composing a letter, you must briefly comment on all documents attached by you or your interlocutor. This way it will be immediately clear to the recipient what contents of the files await him.

Your own signature is an analogy to a business card

Business correspondence requires a signature. It can be made automatic, then it will be present in every letter sent. How to create an informative signature? Use your first and last name, current position, work contacts and company logo.

For example: “With respect, Ivan Ivanov, your project manager, phone number or any other messengers.” Or “Best regards, Ivan Ivanov...”.

The signature can also be catchy and creative, indicating a special connection with the company or cause. For example, employees of a book industry network can use the phrase “I’m currently reading...” when inserting the name of current new products. But it is better to coordinate such things with your superiors.

Mailing address

The rules of business correspondence require the display of a postal address. It would be better if he was purely a worker. The company name, position, first or last name may be displayed there, but not the year of birth or playful nicknames/words. It is better to think about the correct name of the address for many years if you plan to leave it even if you change activities or positions.

Font and spacing

In documentation, the font most often used is Times New Roman, size 12 for tables or 14 for text. 1.5-2 intervals. These are the unspoken basics.

Business communication style

Business correspondence involves a delicate balancing act. Friendly communication is inappropriate here, but emphatically harsh communication is not appropriate either.

Features of communication:

Severity of designs

Diminutive words and slang expressions will be inappropriate.

Using emoticons

Use emoticons carefully or avoid them. The first contact does not allow their presence in principle. In the future, brackets may be present, but only positive ones, in moderate quantities. Niceness and humor are unacceptable in this style of communication. This form is unacceptable if you are subordinate to your interlocutor.

Greetings by name and patronymic

The rules for conducting business correspondence imply a respectful attitude towards the interlocutor, attention and interest in his person. This increases your opponent's interest in you and increases the chance of his leniency. It is advisable to know in advance the name of the person you are addressing, as well as his preferences for address.

Reply within two days

It is correct to send a response to the message within a few business days. Otherwise it is considered disrespectful. If the letter was sent before the weekend or vacation, you don’t have to respond to it if it is not urgent. Otherwise, you need to warn your interlocutor about the temporary absence of your response or briefly unsubscribe about the contents of the letter.

Lack of intrusiveness

Constantly asking about something, asking for confirmation will show you in a bad light. If confirmation from the interlocutor is required, you can remind him of the need to respond in three days. If the matter is urgent, it is better to mention it initially in your first message.

Mirror rule

Business correspondence etiquette often allows you to address your opponent the way he does. This increases the possibility of mutual understanding and communication on the same level. Keep track of what terms, style of communication, and address your interlocutor uses.

Happy holidays

If communication takes place around or during official holidays, it is worth congratulating the interlocutor. These are the rules of business correspondence. It is also useful to know when your opponent's birthday is.

Gratitude

Elementary politeness would be words of gratitude in response to a congratulation, invitation, or explanation.

Taking into account all the above features, it will not be difficult to establish contact with your interlocutor and form a favorable opinion about yourself.

The importance of business writing rules

In fact, any letter sent is a business card, a reflection of our chosen business position. So that she looks decent, inspires respect and trust, and negotiations are accompanied by comfort and efficiency in solving problems, knowledge of the rules of good manners and their constant observance is an unshakable guarantee of success.

With regard to any correspondence, on the Internet or in letters, the same strict standards apply as when communicating by phone or personal negotiations. The principles on which the interaction is built:

mutual respect between opponents for the personality and business position of the other person;
attention to the business interests of the opponent;
maintaining confidentiality;
punctuality in solving important tasks.

Business correspondence is necessary because:

when sending a letter there is no answer, even if it was implied;
letters get lost in the flow of unnecessary information and employees constantly call each other asking to check their mail;
after reading the email it is completely unclear what is needed from you;
Due to the abundance of details and chaos of information in messages, thoughts are confused, and a complex issue is never resolved.

You can save a lot of free time if you implement general rules for conducting business correspondence. This will help avoid the above problems.

When we write a letter to a friend or relative, we can ignore mistakes and punctuation marks, abbreviate words as we like, and use slang. The main thing is to make it clear what we are talking about. But if we write to a stranger or an unfamiliar person and want to get an answer from him, then we should take into account some rules.

Rules of communication

1 . Always indicate the subject of the letter.

The “Subject” field must be filled in in any case and it is highly desirable that it corresponds to the content of the message.

For example, if you want to make an appointment for a consultation on March 5th, write: “Sign up for a consultation (03/05).”

2. When replying to a letter, save your correspondence history.

When you receive a letter from someone, you can respond to it in three ways:

Copy the sender's address and write him a new letter.
Click on the special reply field at the bottom of the message.
Use the "Reply" button.

For business correspondence, you should respond in the third way, that is, click on the “Reply” button. A new email will open, repeating the one you received. The topic is the same, only with the prefix “Re:”, the original text is fully quoted.

This is the standard response form and you should not change anything about it. Your answer must be printed before the quoted text. This is done so that each participant in the conversation can remember what was discussed at any time.

3. Always say hello and address your interlocutor as "you".

Any message should begin with a greeting. And it is better if it is individual. If appropriate, call the interlocutor by name, otherwise - by first name and patronymic.

It is advisable to end the letter with the following construction: Sincerely, ... (first name/surname or first name/patronymic).

For example: Hello, Alexey Petrovich. Please send the contract to Ivan Mikhailovich. Best regards, Ilya Krivosheev

4 . Reply as quickly as possible.

The sooner you respond to a message, the better. Ideally within a few hours. But it is also possible within a few days. The longer you wait to respond, the worse it affects your reputation.

As for the text of the message, when writing it you should also follow some rules.

Write specifically, but in detail

Don't make the other person guess what you meant. If the problem is not obvious, describe it in as much detail as possible: how you got the result you have, what exactly you want to achieve and what is required from your interlocutor.

But this does not mean that you need to indicate all the details in great detail. Skip the unnecessary stuff - value the other person’s time.

Try to write briefly and to the point

There is no need, for example, to talk about how your wife, mother-in-law and other relatives are doing.

As for size, ideally one “screen” (no scrolling). Maximum - text size that fits on an A4 sheet.

Use common sense and common decency

Be polite, attentive, thank you for your letters and time.

What you absolutely CAN NOT do

1 . Abuse punctuation marks.

One exclamation or question mark is enough. They should not be duplicated. Also, do not overuse ellipses.

An example of a “bad” letter:

2. Use different fonts, letter sizes and colors.

Mail sites and programs allow you to change these settings. You can choose an unusual font, make the letters larger or smaller, or color the text in different colors. But this is inappropriate in business correspondence!

It’s better not to change anything at all and leave everything as it is by default. The only thing that is acceptable is to highlight some words in bold or italics. But only if necessary!

An example of a “bad” letter:

3. Insert smiley pictures.

Leave happy and sad faces, flowers and hearts for personal correspondence. In business letters, it is better not to use emoticons - neither text nor pictures.

An example of a “bad” letter:

4 . Print text in capital letters.

Typing text in capital letters on the Internet is considered bad manners. This applies to both business and personal correspondence, as well as communication on social networks, Skype, forums and other places. Moreover, this applies to both the entire text and individual words.

The Caps Lock keyboard key is responsible for capital letters. That is, if all your letters are typed in capitals, you just need to press it once and release.

Moreover, do not print the “Subject” of the letter in capital letters - this is the height of disrespect!

On a note . Typing individual words and entire text in capital letters feels like shouting. And screaming is aggression, which goes beyond cultural correspondence.

If you really need to highlight something in the text, it is better to do it using bold or italics.

And it is also very advisable to avoid the words “Urgent”, “Important” and others that express impatience in the subject line of the letter.

Literacy

You should not be too strict about this, but try to write correctly in your letters. A few simple tips:

Every sentence must begin with a capital letter. To type it, hold down the Shift key.
There must be a period at the end of every sentence. In the Russian keyboard layout, it is located in the bottom row on the right (before Shift).
To type a comma, hold Shift and press the period key.
Do not put a space before a comma or period. There should be a space after them.

And one more piece of advice for those who know at least a little how to use the Word text editor (Writer). First type the letter in this program. It will highlight errors with a red line and by right-clicking on such a word, you can correct it.

Copy and paste the finished text into the letter field. But before inserting, you should disable formatting so that it can be added without formatting from Word (Writer).

In mail.ru mail, to do this, click on the “Remove design” sign at the top.