Rules for conducting business correspondence by e-mail. How to conduct business correspondence: etiquette requirements

The functioning of any enterprise is, first of all, a document flow, business correspondence. About 50% of the working time employees of the administrative apparatus spend on working with documents. Ultimately, each document is a reflection of human relationships, therefore, in order to avoid unmotivated complications in cooperation, the workflow is strictly regulated, and the rules business correspondence strictly formalized.

That is why some people who have enough high level oratory, having the ability to negotiate effectively, turn out to be very mediocre specialists in the implementation of business correspondence, which requires clarity, brevity, excludes verbosity and irrelevant speech turns. Compliance with the rules of business correspondence allows you to reduce the time for compiling documents, more accurately state the essence of the problem, and the formalization of business correspondence is one of the signs of business etiquette.

Business correspondence can be conditionally divided into:

Official, unofficial;
external, internal.

External official business correspondence- this commercial offers, information and guarantee letters, etc.

Internal official business correspondence carried out within the enterprise for communication with its divisions, branches (order, instruction, official duties etc.)

External and internal informal correspondence is congratulations, invitations, condolences, thanks.

Significant volume official documents compose business letters that are sent about all aspects of the economic and financial activities of the enterprise and largely determine business success.

Business correspondence rules define the following requirements when writing a letter:

The contractor must clearly state the essence of the problem, as well as the question to which he wants to receive an exhaustive answer, be able to express it in an accessible and concise manner, avoiding wording and terms that may have an ambiguous interpretation;

The writing style should be as correct as possible, without emotional formulations, but with convincing arguments;

A positive perception of a letter depends not only on the style of presentation and argumentation, but also on the letterhead of the enterprise, the envelope. For business letters standardized forms are provided, which have a mandatory set of details, the order of which is also strictly regulated.

The rules of business correspondence establish the following details for an official letter:

The agency to which the enterprise belongs, the name of the enterprise (full and abbreviated), addresses - postal, telegraphic, electronic, telephone numbers, bank account, date, document number;

In business correspondence, the letter is drawn up according to a unified structure. It begins with an appeal to the addressee, indicating the position, surname, name and patronymic. Below (the center of the sheet) the appeal itself is written: "Dear (Mr. Petrov or Sergey Ivanovich - depending on the degree of relationship)." In business correspondence with foreign partners, you should contact by name or - "Mr. Schultz." In an invitation to a presentation, an exhibition, a business meeting, the addresses "dear ladies and gentlemen" should be used; in an invitation to a social event, "dear ladies and gentlemen" should be used.

This is followed by a preamble that reveals the purpose of the letter, specifying its further content. For example, the design organization does not meet the schedule design work, which threatens you with a delay in the delivery of equipment and commissioning of the facility, financial losses. In the preamble, you state this situation in such a way that your counterparty must understand the following:

You are not satisfied with the work of the design organization;
you will achieve the project schedule;
you are counting on the improvement of the situation with the implementation of design work.

In the main text, you specify the situation of non-fulfillment of the design work schedule, demand the fulfillment of contractual obligations and offer your own ways to solve the problem. At the end of the letter, confidence is expressed that the counterparty will successfully resolve the current situation and cooperation will be mutually beneficial. In business correspondence, it is considered bad form to not comply with the official rank, i.e. a letter to the director must be signed by the director, and not by the head of the department or department.

In some cases, the letter must be supplemented with some documents, which are called annexes. The rules of business correspondence do not establish requirements for their execution. The application is performed on a separate sheet and numbered. Information about the presence of attachments is indicated before the signature, for example: "Two documents on four sheets are attached to the letter:

1. Acts of shipment

2. Invoice

Depending on the purpose, there are several types of business letters:

Business correspondence in the form of written reminders, which are sent in cases where, through personal contacts or telephone conversations, it is not possible to obtain the necessary information;

Business correspondence in the form of letters - confirmations that confirm the receipt of documents or information;

Business correspondence in the form of a cover letter, which further explains the documents attached to it;

Business correspondence in the form of a letter - a notice in which something is reported, one of its varieties is an information letter;

Business correspondence in the form of a circulation letter. As a rule, such letters are sent by a higher organization to inform or give instructions to subordinate enterprises;

Business correspondence in the form letter of guarantee, which confirms certain agreements or conditions of cooperation. Usually, payment for supplies, payment for the work performed, deadlines for the completion of work, provision of housing are guaranteed;

Business correspondence in the form of claims contains requirements for the supply of low-quality goods and equipment (replacement or markdown), underdelivery of goods or equipment, return Money for missing goods and whether equipment or their deliveries are up to contract volumes.

A business letter is a kind of psychological portrait of the sender, his business card, as well as part of the image and reputation of the company. How to guard yourself against the prospect of putting a bold cross on all this - in our article.

Tatyana Nikolaeva,

leading expert on business etiquette Negotiation Training Center, Moscow

Email Rules for business people, it is a kind of tool that allows you to "keep the face" of the company and reflect its image in communication with partners. What are the key rules of business e-mail correspondence that merchants need to consider? Let's take a closer look, because it really plays a huge role.

Rule 1: Include the subject of the email

It is by this criterion busy man decides which letter to open first. In addition, this e-mail rule allows the interlocutor to find the desired letter among the flow of correspondence. For example, it is convenient to receive emails with subject lines that reflect different organizational aspects of the same process.

For example: “Participant’s package of documents”, “Invoice for participation in the exhibition”, “Memo to the participant of the exhibition”, “Layout of exhibition pavilions”, etc. If all correspondence was conducted with the subject “Participation in the exhibition”, find the desired letter in extensive correspondence it would be much more difficult.

Rule 2. Do not forget about the address and greeting

This is where the letter should begin. It is better to do this in this form: "Good afternoon, name (patronymic) of the addressee." The cumbersome construction of "Good day!" better not to use. It is also incorrect to indicate the following wording: "Hello, Mr. Ivanov." In a business environment, they don't talk about health. If the letter is addressed to a group of people, you can use the collective word: "Dear Sirs!" or "Colleagues!". You can do without contact only in the case of intensive correspondence in the "question-answer" mode, as when communicating on Skype.

Phrases that can not be used in correspondence

If email is an important lead generation channel for your organization, here is 11 phrases, from which the editors of the magazine "Commercial Director" recommends urgently get rid of.

Rule 3. Remember that brevity is the sister of talent

If the subject of the letter requires explanation and details, specify the necessary parameters. However, do not pour "water" at the same time, write specifically. The ideal option there will be a small letter in which you will agree with the addressee on a telephone conversation or a meeting where you can discuss all the details.

Rule 4. Writing style - business, tone - neutral

Unlike face-to-face communication and a telephone conversation, where you have a script, your addressee not only does not see you, but also does not hear you. You cannot complete your words with facial expressions, intonation, other nonverbal cues. Therefore, strictly adhere to this rule of business e-mail. For example, in a conversation, the phrase “what else do you need from me?”, uttered with a certain intonation, will express a desire to know the entire list of duties or actions. And in writing, it can be read like this: “How much can I load? Have a conscience!

Therefore, if you are ready for further action, it is better to always use this rule of correspondence by e-mail. Write like this: “what else can I be useful / useful for?”. If you participate in further process You have no desire, it is necessary to speak about it correctly. For example, like this: “Colleagues, in view of my high workload on another project, I would be grateful if you ...” and then describe your wishes: “free me from further work on this project”, “describe to me the full range of my duties so that I can plan my work.” At the same time, it is important to take into account the subordination: if you correspond with the manager, check with him the priority of this work.

Rule 5. Dose the number of emoticons in the text

This rule of thumb e-mail correspondence of business people. In some companies, the use of "smilies" is strictly prohibited. If your organization is not one of them, use these icons, but be very careful. After all, “emoticons” are symbols of emotions that need to be dosed in a business environment. One icon in the letter is enough to let the interlocutor understand your emotions. This e-mail correspondence rule also applies to business communication on Skype and ICQ.

Rule 6. Do not forget about the electronic signature

At the end of any (not only the first) letter, there must be a signature containing the full name and position of the sender, his work contacts, and the company logo. This is a good tone and an indicator of the presence of a corporate culture.

Rule 7. Re-read the letter before sending. Correct errors and typos

negligence is not the best quality for a business person.

Rule 8. Respond to correspondence within 24 hours

If you need more time, you should write about it within a day. It will not be superfluous to contact the recipient of the letter after sending and make sure that he received it and when to expect a response from him.

Rule 9: Acknowledge emails with attachments

Check if they open correctly. Please note that company executives should not send any promotional offers or links leading to them (unless they are the subject of discussion).

It is better to send such letters on behalf of a sales manager with a corresponding notice in the body of the letter.

Rule 10. Correspondence ends with the one who started it

The last letter is sent by the initiator of the correspondence. Even if all the questions have already been discussed, write to the partner words of gratitude for effective cooperation and prompt responses. At the end, you can wish you a good mood and a productive week. However, only if you have a close and long-term relationship with the recipient. In all other cases, it is better to indicate: "Best wishes."

Business Email Correspondence - convenient way written communication between business entities. You have to write and receive a lot of letters, and the speed and correctness of communication is one of the components of the successful work of the company. Some rules of business correspondence.

E-mail has firmly taken its place in business correspondence due to its advantages - availability around the clock, efficiency, and ease of use. In this article, we will look at some of the nuances of online business correspondence.

Receiving letters

1. You should check your mailbox several times during the working day. Otherwise, you can delay the decision important issues and stop other people's work.
2. If you received a letter, then you need to read it, because someone sent it. Naturally, we are not talking about spam here.
3. If you are a manager, then your working day should begin with checking your mail. For convenience, set your email client to automatically deliver or send mail every 10-20 minutes.
4. In the event that you are busy and you receive an email, look at who it is from, what the subject of the email is, and quickly look at the title to gauge the importance of the email.
5. Try to answer emails right away - this will help you avoid blockages in the mail.

Use the To, Cc, and Bcc fields correctly

1. "To whom". If you send a question or ask for clarification, then you are waiting for an answer from the addressee, whose data is indicated in the "to" field. When you are the recipient, you need to answer the question. That is, this field contains the recipient's data.
2. "Copy". The recipient whose data is indicated in this field are, as it were, “invited eyewitnesses”. The recipient in this case should not reply to the letter. In addition, if you need to send such a letter, it should begin with the lines “sorry to interfere,” out of courtesy.
3. "Hidden copy". The fact that the letter was sent to the addressee whose data is indicated in the "blind copy" field is unknown to the main recipient. In addition, this field is used for mass mailing.

When replying, do not forget about the "reply all" button, this will help you not to miss a single recipient. You can delete unwanted recipients and add new ones at any time.

Subject field. This field must always be filled in. The person to whom the letter is addressed can receive a huge amount of mail per day, and by this field he will be able to assess the degree of importance of the letter. The subject of the letter should briefly and informatively reflect its content.

"The Importance of Writing". In the case when the letter contains important or urgent information that needs urgent consideration, indicate this, set the importance to "high". This will make your email stand out in your inbox. But don't overuse this feature.

How to reply to email

Below we will consider a small instruction on writing a response to a letter.

1. You should always start with a greeting - a tribute to courtesy, nothing can be done.
2. You need to communicate with a person in his language. And this applies not only to linguistics, but also to the form of communication. Informal communication can be regarded as disrespect, and even an attempt to offend the interlocutor.
3. You should not use transliteration, except when sending a letter with mobile phone. In the case when your mail client does not have the Russian language, send the text of the letter in the application.
4. A business letter should be restrained, precise and concise. Accuracy means clearly indicating the data you are referring to (date, place, time, etc.). Specificity - the recipient of your letter should understand from the very first lines what exactly is required of him. Conciseness. If you are a clear thinker, you are able to express your thoughts clearly. And your interlocutor will immediately see and appreciate it. Therefore, you should avoid "water" for several pages if you can state the essence of the matter in a few sentences.
5. When a letter contains several questions, tasks or topics, they need to be structured and separated from each other. A continuous stream of thoughts is difficult to read, and even more difficult to extract important points from it.
6. Requests made in letters should be answered in as much detail as possible. Answers like "To be done" are not acceptable.
7. There should be no errors in the text of the letter. It's not scary if one or two minor typos creep in. But if you suffer from chronic illiteracy from letter to letter, then the interlocutor will not have the best impression of you.
8. Always proofread your letters! Read the letter several times and make sure that you haven't missed anything, check it for errors, whether the recipient's details are correct, etc., etc.

E-mail correspondence is an integral part of the daily business practice of a modern secretary. The ability to persuade while remaining polite and correct is a skill that needs to be developed and honed. An ineptly composed and illiterate letter can put an end to a career and irrevocably ruin a business reputation. In this article you will find a set of simple and effective rules e-mail business correspondence that will help you prove your professionalism and successfully achieve your goals.

From the article you will learn:

Business Email Correspondence: Rules and Examples

Rule 1:

work email is used only for official correspondence

This remark applies not only to business letter etiquette how much to business ethics and the preservation of your reputation. Always remember that all letters that you send from your work computer are stored on the server, and your manager can review them if desired.

Rule 2:

Rule determine the circle of addressees of your message

If you write a letter to a manager, then there must be one addressee - the leader, if you write to colleagues or subordinates, then there may be several addressees. They are entered separated by commas in the "To" field, all interested parties - in the "Copy" field. These may be third parties mentioned in the text of the message. Try not to send extra copies, especially to management. Subservience and the desire to please will not adorn you. Even more disservice to you will be the presence of "blind copies" of the letter. You will be known as an intriguer.

Rule 3:

the purpose of the letter should be transparent to both you and the recipient

Clearly state the purpose of your message: what action do you expect from the reader of the message? What reaction should follow. This goal should be transparent not only for you, but also for the addressee.

The purpose of the message will predetermine the form and grammar of the narrative:

• the statement of your opinion and your assessment of the situation involves the use of 1 person (“I” and “we”);
• request, instruction, motivation for action involves the use of 2 persons (“you” and “you”);
• informing about events from the point of view of an outside observer involves the use of 3 persons ("he" or "they").

Rule 4:

do not leave the "subject" field empty

Most users start with by email from the study of the "topic" field. Sometimes they end up with this. To prevent your message from being deleted before it's read, try to keep the topic as specific, informative, and concise as possible. Vague topics like "Request for information", "from Moscow", "modified version" are not allowed. Examples of successful topics:

"List of team members for the Olympiad in Mathematics in Moscow"

"List of faulty equipment of the eighth workshop dated 06/01/17"

Projection Equipment Market Research 2017

If you are replying to a message, then the “Re” symbol will appear in the “subject” field, it is recommended to delete it.

Rule 5:

stick to traditional message structure

The structure of the letter is simple and clear, but each element in it is required:

1. Greeting and address;
2. Main block;
3. Summary block;
4. Signature
5. Contact Information.

Rule 6:

greeting and address - the key to mutual understanding

Never use the expression "Good day" as a greeting. This is bad tone. Use the universal "Hello!" or "Good afternoon!". An official letter can be started immediately with the appeal “Dear (name and patronymic)” or “Dear Mr. (surname)”. Which option is preferable - first name, patronymic or last name? The rule here is this - if you are just making contact and writing a message to the addressee for the first time, then it is appropriate to address by last name, when contact is established and you write a message for the second time, address by name and patronymic.

If the message has multiple recipients, then suitable option there will be an appeal “Dear Sirs” or “Dear Colleagues” if you are addressing representatives of a profession close to you. At the end of the appeal, you can put an exclamation point or a comma, and start the text itself with a new paragraph, with a lowercase letter. Which option to choose? In a formal letter or in a message to which you attach great importance, put an exclamation mark, and in a simple work message, put a comma.

Rule 7:

conciseness is the main advantage of electronic correspondence

“Maximum meaning – minimum words” is the golden motto of business correspondence.

The presentation of ideas should be:

• specific;
• consistent;
• concise;
• understandable.

Write in short sentences - it's easier for you and clearer for the addressee. Break the text into paragraphs, so it's easier to browse and find the information you need.

Another tip: one topic, one post. If you want to consider several unrelated issues, highlight a few different ideas, then devote a separate text to each topic. Of course, the "Subject" field should contain this idea or question in a short form.

In the case of a long correspondence, you can limit yourself to the words "Respectfully" and a first name with a surname.

Rule 14:

try not to use postscript

The use of a postscript is permissible in one case - if at the time of writing the letter some kind of significant event directly related to the addressee.

Example: P.S. The plane tickets were delivered an hour ago.

Rule 15:

use the read receipt as intended

The purpose of this notification is that the addressee is expected to perform some action. It is used only for external destinations.

Rule 16:

do not overuse the "high importance" flag

Remember Leo Tolstoy's parable about the boy who liked to shout "Wolves!" as a joke? Everyone was so used to his jokes that when the wolves really attacked him, no one reacted to his cries.
When you need to really indicate the importance of the letter, all the necessary flags will already be used.

Rule 17:

double-check all the data, numbers and names

Make it a rule - before sending, be sure to re-read letter, check all numbers, clarify surnames and initials. One small mistake could cost you your seat.

Rule 18:

reply to email immediately

If for some reason you cannot answer right away - for example, you do not have all the information or are simply not ready, just write that the letter has been received and you will answer later. Otherwise, the recipient will not be sure that the letter was received or was not deleted by mistake.

Then questions about how and by what means you can create and send, in principle, should not arise. However, not everyone is ready to immediately begin this task when it comes to official letters, especially when the author of the letter expects to receive a response to it. I will open to you little secret business correspondence, the stricter in character and style the letter is, the more likely it is for a response from the recipient. In this tutorial, I'll give you some sample emails that should help users develop their own style and write the most literate messages in the future.

First, you need to decide what character the letter we are creating will be. I divide all outgoing emails into three main types:

• Business offer
• business request
• friendly treatment

Accordingly, for all three types, I have template blanks, both in the form of simple text files and in the form of templates tailored for certain mail programs. Let's move on to each of them in order.

Business offer

Hello (Good afternoon), [name of the person addressed]!

It is advisable to indicate the name in any letter when communicating, because a personal appeal sets a person in a friendly mood. However, if it was not possible to find out the name, a template greeting will suffice.

Let me introduce to you a new service (new product) from our company [company name].

Let me propose cooperation in the field of [name of field of activity].

Next, briefly describe the advantages of your offer in the price version, or some quality characteristics. The main thing is not to overdo it. Megabytes of text, and even supplemented by bright meaningless pictures, only scare people away. If the recipient of the letter is interested in your offer from the first lines, he will definitely contact you for additional information.

If you are seriously interested in necessary people contacted you at the first contact, so it makes sense to think about accessibility not only by e-mail. It will not be superfluous to create accounts in services such as ICQ andSkype. Sometimes it is much easier for a person to contact you by regular phone, if the number of such, of course, will be prudently left by you in the signature.

Why do you need to duplicate your own e-mail address in the signature, you ask, if one is automatically forwarded mail server. There is a rule according to which excessive information in business correspondence is never unnecessary. Let's imagine a situation when your letter is received by a person who is potentially not interested in the offer, or simply not competent to answer it correctly. He forwards the received message to another user, but for some reason, information about the true sender is lost from the automatically added data, which makes it difficult to contact you. However, it will always be enough to look at the signature to determine the author of the letter and his necessary contacts.

business request

Hello (Good afternoon)!

Or, if the recipient's name is known, then (Dear, [Name, Patronymic])!

Please provide information about the product (service) [name of product/service] with a description complete characteristics and competitive qualities.

Based federal law Russian Federation [number and date of the document], please provide information [describe the data necessary for obtaining].

You can also contact the management of a particular service on the Internet, in case of violation of your rights.

In connection with the violation of paragraph [paragraph number in the user agreement] of the user agreement, namely: “[quote the full text of the named paragraph]”, I ask you to check and take appropriate sanctions against the guilty [responsible (if we are talking about employees of the service)] person of [site (site name)]. Please report the results of the check and the imputed sanctions to [my own e-mail address].

friendly treatment

Greetings (Good day) (Hi), [person's name]!

When first contacted in a friendly manner, a good indicator will be the completeness of your text appeal. A correctly written, voluminous text will indicate your high interest in contacting the right person and will cause a desire for a response. Don't forget to start the conversation with a few initial questions.

Email example