Suggestions that will prevent your emails from coming across wrong

Email really is a great tool and one that saves real estate agents a lot of time and energy. I can remember back to the days before email when even the smallest bit of information required a phone call to the other agent or our customer. We have so many great tools at our finger tips today. They assist us with doing our business, emailing being a huge one.

That is the good news; the not so good news is in how easy it is to misread or misunderstand the senders tone, attitude or words in an email. When it comes to communicating in an email I believe “measuring twice, cutting once”, is sage advice. Our business can be very stressful. How we communicate through email with sellers, buyers, and lenders, etc. can work to increase or reduce the stress we feel.

If you receive an email where you perceive the sender’s message coming across as them being upset, angry or rude, before responding back make sure you are reading and understanding the sender’s intentions correctly. This may require you to send a follow up email asking for clarification from the sender or you may want to pick up the phone to avoid further problems and confusion.

There will be times where we read more into the email than was actually there or incorrectly interpret, or just plain misunderstand the sender’s message, or feelings, due to busy schedules and our fast paced lifestyle. Taking the time to compose an email that accurately reflects the intent of the message is a must as our transactions become increasingly difficult and stressful.

Suggestions that will prevent your emails from coming across wrong would include;

• Using a polite or friendly salutation and a valediction. The beginning and ending of your email will help set the tone. The use of dear, hello or just using the recipients name at the start of the email and ending with thank you, best regards, all the best or something similar will make it less likely your email will be misinterpreted.
• Be careful when using jokes or satire. If the reader is not following along, jokes and satire could create an unwanted situation between the writer and the person receiving the email.
• Write as though the person was right in front of you having a conversation. It is important to remain politically correct, polite, clear and concise with our message just as we would speak to the person as if they were in the room with us.

Re-read your email before hitting the send button and practice the suggestions mentioned here and you will reduce the number of times your emails are taken wrong.