Rules for Conducting Business Correspondence by E-mail. How to conduct business correspondence correctly: etiquette requirements

The functioning of any enterprise is, first of all, document flow, business correspondence... Employees of the administrative apparatus spend about 50% of their working time 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 are rigidly formalized.

That is why some people who have enough high level oratory, having effectively negotiated, 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 drawing up documents, to 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 is commercial offers, information and guarantee letters, etc.

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

External and internal unofficial correspondence is congratulations, invitations, condolences, gratitude.

Significant volume official documents make up 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 composing a letter:

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

The writing style should be as correct as possible, without emotional wording, but with convincing argumentation;

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

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

The department to which the company belongs, the name of the company (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 (center of the sheet) the appeal itself is written: "Dear (Mr. Petrov or Sergei Ivanovich - depending on the degree of relationship)." When business correspondence with foreign partners, you should address by name or - "Mr. Schultz". In an invitation to a presentation, an exhibition, a business meeting, the address "Dear Sirs" is used, in an invitation to a social event, "Dear Ladies and Gentlemen" should be used.

This is followed by a preamble, which reveals the purpose of the letter, specifying its further content. For example, a project organization is not on schedule design work, which threatens you with disruption of the delivery time 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 ensure that the design work schedule is met;
you are counting on the improvement of the situation with the implementation of design work.

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

In some cases, the letter must be supplemented with some documents, which are called attachments. The rules of business correspondence do not establish requirements for their design. The application is executed on a separate sheet and numbered. Information on the availability of attachments is indicated before the signature, for example: "The letter is accompanied by two documents on four sheets:

1.Acts of shipment

2.Invoice - invoices

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 it is not possible to obtain the necessary information using personal contacts or telephone conversations;

Business correspondence in the form of letters - confirmations, which 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 notification 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 terms of cooperation. Usually guaranteed payment for deliveries, payment for the work performed, the timing of the work, the provision of living space;

Business correspondence in the form of complaints contains requirements for the supply of low-quality goods and equipment (replacement or markdown), shortage of goods or equipment, return Money for missing goods and equipment or their delivery up to contractual volumes.

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

Tatiana 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 email correspondence for merchants to consider? Let's take a closer look, because it really plays a huge role.

Rule 1. Specify the subject of the email

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

For example: "Package of Participant's Documents", "Invoice for Payment for Participation in the Exhibition", "Memo to the Participant of the Exhibition", "Layout of Exhibition Pavilions", etc. If all correspondence would be conducted with the topic "Participation in the Exhibition", find the required letter in an extensive correspondence it would be much more difficult.

Rule 2. Do not forget about the address and greetings

This is where you need to start your letter. It is better to do it in this form: "Good afternoon, name (patronymic) of the addressee." Bulky structure "Good day!" better not to use. It is also incorrect to indicate the following wording: "Hello, Mr. Ivanov." In the 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 an appeal only in the case of intensive correspondence in the "question-answer" mode, as when communicating in Skype.

Phrases that cannot be used in correspondence

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

Rule 3. Remember that brevity is the sister of talent.

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

Rule 4. Writing style - business, tone - neutral

Unlike face-to-face communication and telephone conversation, where you have a script, your addressee not only does not see you, but also does not hear you. You cannot supplement your words with facial expressions, intonation, other non-verbal cues... Therefore, strictly adhere to this rule of business e-mail. For example, in a conversation, the phrase "what else do you want from me?" And in writing it can be read like this: “How much can you load me? Have a conscience! "

Therefore, if you are ready for further action, it is best to always use this rule of correspondence by e-mail... Write like this: “what else can I be useful / useful?”. If you participate in further process You have no desire, you must correctly say about it. 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 for this project "," describe to me the full range of moss responsibilities 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 leader, check with him the priority of this work.

Rule 5. Dose the number of emoticons in the text

it principle rule e-mails of business people. In some companies, the use of "emoticons" 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 rule also applies to business communications 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 name and position of the sender, his working contacts, 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

Carelessness is not best quality for a business person.

Rule 8. Reply to correspondence within 24 hours

If you need more time, you should write about it within 24 hours. It will not be superfluous to contact the recipient of the letter after sending it and make sure that he received it and when to expect a response from him.

Rule 9. Confirm receipt of emails with attachments

Check if they open correctly. Please note that business leaders 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 the sales manager with a corresponding notification 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 your partner words of gratitude for effective cooperation and prompt answers. In 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 addressee. In all other cases, it is best to indicate: "Best wishes."

Business correspondence by email - 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 company's successful work. Some rules of business correspondence.

E-mail has firmly taken its place in business correspondence due to its advantages - 24/7 availability, 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 solution 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 start 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 received a letter, look at who it is from, what the subject of the letter is, and quickly look at the header to assess the importance of the letter.
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 to clarify something, then you expect an answer from the addressee, whose data is indicated in the “to whom” field. When you are the recipient, you need to answer the question. That is, this field contains the data of the recipient.
2. "Copy". The recipient, whose details are indicated in this field, are like “invited eyewitnesses”. In this case, the recipient 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 politeness.
3. "Hidden copy". The main recipient does not know that the letter has been sent to the addressee whose details are indicated in the "blind carbon copy" field. In addition, this field is used for bulk mailing.

When replying, you should not forget about the "reply to 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 should always be filled in. The person to whom the letter is addressed can receive a huge amount of mail per day, and according to this field he will be able to assess the degree of importance of the letter. The subject line of the email should concisely and informatively display its content.

"The Importance of Writing." If 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 in vain.

How to reply to email

Below we will look at a small instruction on how to write a response to a letter.

1. You always need to start with a greeting - a tribute to politeness, nothing can be done about it.
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 disrespectful, and even an attempt to offend the interlocutor.
3. You should not use transliteration, except when sending a letter from mobile phone... In the case when your mail client does not have Russian language, send the text of the letter in the application.
4. A business letter should be consistent, accurate and concise. Accuracy means a clear indication of the data you are referring to (date, place, time, etc.). Concreteness - the recipient of your letter should understand from the very first lines what exactly is required of him. Laconicism. If you think clearly, then you are able to express your thoughts clearly. And your interlocutor will immediately see and appreciate it. Therefore, it is worth avoiding "water" for several pages if you can summarize the essence of the matter in several sentences.
5. When a letter contains several questions, tasks, or topics, they need to be structured and separated from each other. An uninterrupted stream of thoughts is difficult to read, and all the more difficult to isolate important points from it.
6. The requests contained in the letters must be answered in as much detail as possible. Answers like "Will be done" are unacceptable.
7. There should be no mistakes in the text of the letter. It's not scary if one or two minor typos sneak 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 have not missed anything, check it for errors, whether the recipient's details are correct, etc., etc.

E-mail correspondence is an integral part of the day-to-day business practice of the modern secretary. The ability to persuade while remaining polite and correct are skills that need to be developed and honed. An ineptly composed and illiterate letter can put an end to your career and irrevocably ruin your business reputation. In this article, you will find a collection of simple and effective rules business correspondence by e-mail, which 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 business correspondence

This remark applies not so much to business letter etiquette how much to business ethics and preserving your reputation. Always remember that all letters that you send from your work computer are stored on the server, and your manager can read them if he wants.

Rule 2:

Rule define the circle of addressees of your message

If you are writing a letter to a manager, then there should be one addressee - the manager; 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 persons - in the "Cc" field. These may be third parties mentioned in the text of the message. Try not to send out unnecessary copies, especially to the management. Subservience and the desire to please you will not beautify you. An even worse service 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 addressee

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

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

• the presentation of your opinion and your assessment of the situation involves the use of 1 person ("I" and "we");
• request, instruction, motivation to 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 a third person ("he" or "they").

Rule 4:

do not leave the subject field blank

Most users begin their acquaintance with by email with the study of the "topic" field. Sometimes this ends. So that your message is not deleted even before reading, strive to ensure that the topic is as specific, informative and concise as possible. Vague topics like "Request for information", "from Moscow", "revised version" are not allowed. Examples of successful topics:

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

"List of faulty equipment of the eighth workshop from 01.06.17"

"Research of the market of projection equipment for 2017"

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

Rule 5:

stick to the traditional message structure

The structure of the letter is simple and straightforward, but every element in it is required:

1. Greetings and messages;
2. Main unit;
3. Summarizing block;
4. Signature
5. Contact Information.

Rule 6:

greeting and addressing are the key to mutual understanding

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

If the message has several addressees, then suitable option there will be an appeal "Dear Sirs" or "Dear Colleagues" if you apply to representatives of a profession close to you. At the end of the address, you can put an exclamation mark or comma, and the text itself can be started with a new paragraph, with a lowercase letter. Which option should you choose? In an official letter or in a message that you attach great importance to, put an exclamation mark, and in a simple work message, put a comma.

Rule 7:

conciseness is the main advantage of e-mail

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

The statement of thoughts should be:

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

Write in short sentences - it will be easier for you and the recipient will understand better. Break your text into paragraphs to make it easier to browse and find the information you need.

Another tip: one topic, one post. If you want to address several unrelated issues, highlight a few different ideas, then devote a separate text to each topic. It goes without saying that the Subject field should contain this idea or question in short form.

In case of long-term correspondence, you can limit yourself to the words "Sincerely" and first and last name.

Rule 14:

try not to use postscript

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

Example: P.S. Plane tickets were delivered an hour ago.

Rule 15:

use read receipts as intended

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

Rule 16:

do not overuse the "high importance" checkbox

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

Rule 17:

double-check all data, numbers and surnames

Make it a rule to re-read before sending letter, check all numbers, clarify surnames and initials. One small mistake can cost you space.

Rule 18:

reply to the letter immediately

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

That 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 formal letters, especially when the author of the letter expects to receive an answer to it. I will open to you little secret business correspondence, the more strict in its nature and style the letter is composed, the more chances for a response from the recipient. In this tutorial, I'll show you a few sample emails that should help users define their own style and write messages in the most competent way in the future.

To begin with, you need to decide what kind of letter the letter we will be creating will be. I categorize all outgoing emails into three main types:

• Business proposal
• Business Inquiry
• Friendly address

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

Business proposal

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

It is advisable to indicate the name in any letter when communicating, because a personal appeal sets a person up in a friendly way. However, if it was not possible to find out the name, a formulaic greeting will be enough.

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

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

Next, briefly describe the advantages of your offer in a price option, 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, that is, it makes sense to think about availability 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 you need to duplicate your own e-mail address in the signature, you ask, if it is automatically forwarded mail server... Here the rule is that unnecessary information in business correspondence is never unnecessary. Imagine a situation when your letter is received by a person who is potentially uninterested in the proposal, or simply not competent to answer it correctly. It forwards the received message to another user, but at the same time, 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 Inquiry

Hello (Good afternoon)!

Or, if the name of the addressee is known, then (Dear, [Name, Patronymic])!

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

Based Federal law RF [document number and date], please provide information [describe the data required to obtain].

You can also refer to the management of a particular service on the Internet, if your rights are violated.

In connection with the violation of clause [clause number in the user agreement] of the user agreement, namely: "[quote the full text of the named clause]", I ask you to check and take appropriate sanctions against the guilty [responsible (if it comes about service employees)] person [site (site name)]. Please report the results of the verification and the imposed sanctions to [your own e-mail address].

Friendly address

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

At the first contact in a friendly manner, a good indicator will be the completeness of your text appeal. Correctly written, voluminous text will indicate your high interest in contact with the right person and will cause a desire for a response. Remember to kick off the conversation with a few primary questions.

Sample email