Each year, at the beginning of the year, I make my resolutions. They are not always about eating better or exercising more (although this year, they are), but they often include personal and business goals. For several years running, I have vowed to be more empathetic and tolerant of others.
But, when I say this cartoon written by The Oatmeal, he seemed to address many of my own pet peeves and things that I am often surprised that people will tolerate in email— most notably an area where I may need more empathy. (The cartoon is a bit old now, but it has become a standard part of our office onboarding procedures as not everyone in real estate has the same technology experience and not everyone grew up with the same technology etiquette.
In my humble opinion, here are four ways that agent email practices can improve (two loosely adapted from Inman’s cartoon):
- Signature lines. For love of kittens, keep your signature line short. It is not necessary to list all of your accolades in your signature line. In fact, there have been sociological studies, such as the Dunning Kruger Effect, which point out that the more powerful and important you are, the more you feel that you are not good enough—that you don’t measure up. By extension, this means that the more important you are, the less you need to list your accolades in your signature line. As an example, over the last year, I have had email interchanges with Barbara Corcoran (real estate mogul from ABC’s Shark Tank) and Seth Godin (marketing guru). Neither of them even had a signature line that contained information beyond their own name. You can do the same—keep your signature line to a minimum: name, title, company, phone number, website, and license number if applicable. If you want it fancy, pay for an eSignature company to create it for you.
- Don’t cc everyone and his mother. If at all possible, stay away from the “reply all” I’ve seen group invites to events that include hundreds or people. Someone responds saying that they cannot go because junior has the flu, and now hundreds of people are hearing that junior has the flu. This is absolutely not necessary, and often very annoying. Only include the necessary recipients.
- Use applicable subject lines. This will not only be useful to you in the future but it is also useful to the recipient. Say that your broker emails you about your commission check and the subject line is “Commission Check.” In your response, you realize that you want to ask her about a potential land listing. When you hit reply, edit your subject line to say “potential land listing.” Months from the date of the email when you need to search for the response, it will be a lot easier to find if you have altered the subject line. Plus, it only takes about two seconds to do.
- Please use email for its intended purpose. In addition to all those jokes that fly around, email is often used by real estate professionals to negotiate terms. In my mind, this is a no-no. Renowned author, Michael Maher, concurs. In his communication pyramid, he shows email as being used to convey information—predominantly one-way transmissions—such as submitting an offer, asking for a lockbox code, obtaining someone’s mailing address. Significant two-way communication via telephone (while it may seem like it will take longer) actually saves time because you do not need to go back and forth via email over and over again. Not to mention that you look more polished, professional, and hard working than someone that always defers to email.
So, now I have laid it all on the line for you. In 2015, I’m working on eliminating pita crackers (Trader Joe’s, absolutely divine) and Brie cheese, and I’m also trying to increase my exercise level a bit. Lastly, I will work on being more tolerant of others. Of course, you can help me in this regard, if you could follow those simple suggestions for best agent email practices.
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