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Business Emails: Stay On Topic With One Topic
One of my pet peeves when exchanging business emails is the propensity of most people to use the same email thread to discuss things unrelated to the original topic.
For instance, I recently had an email communication with a client about an order for certain pieces of content for three of their websites. We exchanged communication on the same thread over the course of two weeks, finally commencing with final acceptance of the pieces. Five days ago, he emailed me back on the same thread as last time for a different project. What I did in my reply is to delete the previous topic, keep his current request and change the title of the email so it all makes cohesive sense.
That’s not even the worst of it.
While working for in the corporate world, I’ve often come across business emails where discussion of a subject is sent to several recipients. It’s normal to have a few of them respond. However, it’s really irritating when their response on the same thread has absolutely nothing to do with the topic and is instead a communication directed to just one or two people who are part of the recipients.
Not only does it muddle the email, it wastes plenty of people’s time – even if you employ the help of the best English software to compose it. Filing the email becomes a pain and reviewing the thread in case you need to find information on the topic can drive you nuts. If you feel the urge to discuss a different topic, start another email, instead of piling it on with the current conversation.
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