Email peeve

I wrote a little while ago why I prefer email and this post covers a pet peeve of mine relating to email.

I know that not everyone who uses email is a ‘professional’ online and many don’t understand the use of it.  But it does concern me if a client consistently responds to my emails without including anything of the previous email sent to them.  I find a few people do this and it’s very frustrating.

The reason why it’s frustrating is that often their replies are several days later and their reply email often doesn’t even include what the original subject heading was. So I’m left scratching my head trying to work out what they are talking about and having to delve through past emails I’ve sent to them to put the pieces together.  This wastes such a lot of time – time that I don’t charge them for but perhaps I need to reconsider that.

Perhaps to them it’s fresh in their minds because they’ve just read and replied to an email I’ve sent but for me several days have passed and often several hundred emails I’ve read and many I’ve written since that time.

If you are one of those people who do not include the previous email when you reply, please take some time to consider the person you are responding to.  If the email program you use isn’t set up to automatically include the previous message (and subject heading) then please take the time to find out how to do it.  Find someone who uses the same program you do and ask for advice or research it on the web.  It’s amazing how many ‘how-tos’ are available online.

Make it easier on all of those whose emails you are responding to, especially if there is a continued discussion, and make sure you include the questions you are answering, or the bit that you are adding to, to keep the conversation fluid and not disjointed.

Does anyone else feel frustrated by this or is it just me?