Hope the people who have done these mistakes read this and get their act together. And everybody else understands the importance of having a good e-mail etiquette.
Think of your business email as though it was on your business letterhead and you'll never go wrong.
It's the basic point. Being careful and doing a simple spelling and grammar check before sending an e-mail won't hurt. A wasted second is always better than worrying about mistakes done in a sent item.
If you cannot respond to an email promptly, at the very least email
back confirming your receipt and when the sender can expect your
response.
It's the worst type of behavior a sender can expect. No response to an e-mail, even to check whether it's gone to the right person or not. So the sender has to go to the receivers office, slap him/her on the head and ask them to check their e-mail. I've seen this almost all the time where the recruiters/HR people at major Sri Lankan companies don't even have the decency to acknowledge the receipt of an e-mail. It's worse when it comes to a job application or forwarding a CV for a prospective vacancy. Why can't the people who are proud enough to display their e-mails on company websites or job-sites have a common courtesy to acknowledge the receipt? This is especially true in case of HR departments where they pretend to handle worldwide crisis as an excuse to not checking e-mails. I suppose it'll never happen with Sales departments as there's a monetary incentive behind every e-mail.
So, my advice to the beloved recruiters in Sri Lanka. STOP BEING AMATEURS AND GROW UP!!! Check your e-mails at least twice a day, acknowledge the receipts and do the job that recruiters are supposed to do.
When replying to emails always respond promptly and edit out unnecessary information from the post you are responding to.
This is another silly logic forgotten by most people who operate a company e-mail. I have an experience where I complained about a problem with an important page in a website belonging to one of the leading insurance companies in Sri Lanka (ironically, it is partly owned by a global insurance company headquartered in London). Sometime later, I got an apology e-mail detailing all the internal discussions (including each person my e-mail was forwarded to, what they said) which is kind of an absurd thing to do, considering you're communicating with an external party who's not at all interested in your problems, but only need you to get the page up and running at the earliest.
So, putting everything in short: Outsiders don't need to know what action you're taking to solve problems and especially don't need e-mails exposing sensitive details of your colleagues (because some people in Sri Lanka still have a sense of privacy!!). So leave out all the excessive details and then reply to the sender because at the end of the day customers are only interested in the outcome and not the hardship and bureaucracy you encountered to achieve the said outcome.
Others are more general precautions:
Formality is in place as a courtesy and reflects respect. Assume
the highest level of formality with new email contacts until the
relationship dictates otherwise. Refrain from getting too informal too
soon in your email communications.
Never send anyone an email they need to unsubscribe from when they didn't subscribe in the first place!
Be very careful how you use Reply to All and Cc: in a business
environment. Doing so for CYA or to subtlety tattle can backfire and
have your viewed as petty or insecure.
When replying to an email with multiple recipients noted in the To:
or Cc: fields, remove the addresses of those who your reply does not
apply to.
Never send business attachments outside of business hours and
confirm that the format in which you can send can be opened by the other
side.
