I wrote the following tips for my current batch of entrepreneurs, but thought they might have more general application here.  Email is like a hammer: it’s a great tool when used effectively, and f*ing painful when it isn’t.  Enjoy!

Email.  We use it every day.  But are we using it as effectively as we can?  Probably not, if we’re not doing the following:

1. Use Reply All: Before I came to Bizdom, I hated Reply All.  I thought all it did was clutter up my inbox.  Now? I realize it’s the reason my inbox isn’t cluttered – it’s informative.  If I’m cc’ed on an email, I want to know how the conversation is going and whether the issue’s been resolved.  When I cc someone on an email, I want them to be part of the conversation.  Maniacal use of ‘Reply All’ helps this immensely.  Do it as a matter of common practice.
2. Informative Subject Lines: There’s a reason newspapers, blogs, and various other forms of media use headlines – it lets the intended recipient know what the communication is about.  It allows them to skim the headline and prioritize.  When you recycle an old email for convenience sake, you’ve made the subject line useless.  And ultimately put your own convenience over that of the recipient, which leads me to my next point:
3. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient: You want something from them, make it easy for them to give it to you.  You want them to read the email? Make sure the subject matches the content.  You want them to do something after they read the email? Ask.  An email with a document attached could mean “I need you to review this immediately” or “I just wanted you to have a copy of this” or “Hey look at me! I can use attachments!”  Without a direct call to action, you’re making it difficult to get the recipient to take any action, much less the action you want them to take.
4. Use a signature block: If someone wants to follow up on your email, make it easy for them to contact you.  Give them your email address, phone number, address, HAM radio call sign, whatever it takes. Signature blocks automatically added to your email achieve this in a no muss, no fuss manner.

When I was improvising, one of the big moments of self discovery I had was when I realized that everything we do onstage looks like a choice, so we should be conscious of that choice and make it a choice.  When it comes to something as mundane as sending an email, this same principle applies.  Ask yourself – what result am I trying to obtain with this action, and have I done everything to make that result obtainable. Have I given it 100%?

Some of you do this consistently and regularly, and clearly get what I’m talking about.  To you, I offer nothing but praise and encouragement.  Your efforts matter and you will be effective.

Some of you will think I’m an email maniac who’s obsessing about some minor points.   To you, I ask – faced with the choice of communicating effectively and communicating ineffectively, what would possibly justify choosing the ineffective route? Effective people take effective action – that’s what makes them effective.

In the comments, please share your email pet peeves or opportunities for excellence.

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Culture fundamentally is about how you treat your clients and how you treat each other.  In the early days of a startup, when things are extremely tense (money’s tight or non-existent, you don’t really have any business yet) there are a couple of crucial components.

1.      Lines of communication must be kept open. Talk every day.  When I was involved with my startups, I talked to my team everyday.  We talked early in the morning and at the end of the day.  It helped us discuss what we needed to get done in the day and also know what the other people were up to.  It also gave us a chance to address any issues that were coming up. Most importantly, it gave us a chance to start to get to know one another.  Don’t overlook the fact that you’re dealing with other human beings, not just work robots.

2.      We are the they. In a small startup, there are no bosses, no executives, no one is ‘assisting’ anyone else.  It’s a team.  Work as a team.  Even if one of you is drawing a salary and the other one isn’t.  Even if one of you is making 3 times as much as the other one.  You want a fully empowered team that’s operating at their best capabilities.  Eliminating the sense that one person is another’s superior goes a long way towards making this happen.  Nobody’s working for anybody, we’re all working for the team, and for each other. You create ownership of purpose that way.

3.      Set a reasonable work schedule for yourself and for everyone else. There’s always more stuff to do.  You want to avoid a culture built on face time (who can show up the earliest, who can stay at work the latest).  Do you value people getting stuff done, or do you value people looking busy?  It’s really easy in those early days to work yourself into exhaustion and then set that as the standard.  You want to have a constant workflow, not a workflow that’s intense up to the point where it breaks down and then needs to build back up.  Everyone worked really hard in the organizations I’ve started, but at the end of the day, we make sure to wrap it up so that we’re able to come back in tomorrow and do it again.

4.      Ignore the noise. The early days are fraught with noise.  It’s not working.  We’re stupid to do this.  We’re going to be out of business by the end of next week.  Put your head down, focus on execution, and ignore the noise.

5.      Every client, every time. Clients are hard to come by early on.  Make sure you’re returning their phone calls and emails promptly.  Blow them away with the speed and clarity of your response.  Grab any opportunity to serve a client, and serve the hell out of them.

Focus on these things and you’ll make it through the rough early days with a culture founded in reason and execution, rather than irrationality and panic.

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“You can tell a lot about an organization by looking at its customer experience. Digital user interfaces like websites and kiosks are especially telling, because they combine many aspects of the company – marketing, technology, branding”

An interesting article regarding airline kiosks.

via goodexperience.com

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The Best and Worst Companies for Call Center Service:

Call Centers get kudos or raspberries. Check the ten best list to see who they are and make a mental note of it, but read the ten worst for the horror stories. Have you heard about the woman who complained about her billing and then got mail addressed to “Bitch Dog”? Or the guy who had to threaten murder to get his service disconnected? And which company asks for your social security number before they will speak to you? Outsourcing and automation aren’t the problem, its the people who design and implement the systems. What companies have you had the best and worst luck getting call center service from?

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