Dimitrios BUHALIS - Information Technology for strategic tourism management

1. Critical Mail Techniques in a Global Market Place • Aprrox. 100 billion emails sent worldwide during the year 1995. • 5.5 trillion emails sent 2002 • 7 trillion sent in 2003 • 11 trillion sent in 2004 • Statistics for January 2008 • Spam Statistics • Rate of Spam: 63.28% • Main Sources of Spam: • 1. United States - 43.18% • 2. Germany - 39.77% • 3. Poland - 5.07% • 4. France - 4.05% • 5. Singapore - 2.19% • Virus Statistics • Rate of Virus Infection: 4.17% • This does not include spam or email notifications! • Emails can be looked up and found available in the main hosting servers 7 years after deletion.source: secret! Travel e22 Dimitrios BUHALIS - Information Technology for strategic tourism management

2. Metacommunications • Metacommunications are even more prevalent in email than regular snail mail! WHY? • Fast response rate • Poorly written sentences • Poor use of grammer • Emails should not reflect emotions • We just DON’T THINK when we write emails! • In its basic form, a metacommunication is an act of communication between two agents that also communicates something about the communication itself, or about the relationship between the two agents, or both. • Metacommunication - something that means different (often contradictory) things at different levels.e.g.: The speech act "Trust Me" often conveys the exact opposite of its literal meaning. Travel e22

3. Metacommunications • Business failure to communicate is awesome!2/3 of all customer dissatisfaction is directly affected by failure to communicate • Primary source of quality failure is miscommunication and misunderstanding between the client and the professional Facts • In Singapore, EMAIL CONTRACTS are as good as the written contracts by law. • Atlanta Journal Newspaper has lost $ 119 million just because of a wrongly written email.. • 81% say that emails with grammatical errors create negative feelings when reading.. Travel e22

4. Facts • They rejected that they received emails although they did: • England 11% • Spain 4% • Germany 1% • Reading from screen vs. reading the paper • Reading from screen diminishes your reading quality and attention by 43 % ! • In English, 90% of words ending with “ly” are unnecessary and offensive in emails. • 67 % never read the end line!.. • Be honest! It works! • I have only 3 pages, may I use the copy machine...40% • May I use the copy machine, I’m in a rush..............80% • May I use the copy machine, I gotto make copies ..93% Travel e22

5. Facts Accordingto a 2007 survey, 94.6% of respondents said they changed their opinion about someone based on his/her email message, or the wayit was written. Other research indicates that email messages are perceived as being 10times more “rude” than any other form of communication. Travel e22

6. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 1. Better subject lines. • Never leave empty • Do not put company’s name in the subject line • Must point out what to expect in the content of the email 2. Stop selling your features: If everyone else offers the same features, consider beginning your proposal with; • Our competition will do a great job for you. We’ll do an awesomeone!.. 3. Compel them with the absolute most important benefit to them. • What is the absolute most compelling information they need? • Instead of data dumping everything, start with the onemost fabulous benefit you offer • Get them seeing it, feeling it, tasting it Travel e22

7. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 4. Be unpredictable • Do not send a routine email written in CAPS, but an occasional word in a sales proposal that is made bold, or capitalized, or emphasized withcolor or italics, gets attention.. 5. Use testimonials • Nothing sells faster and better than social proof. • Testimonials are powerful because they speak to the reader in a manner that we can’t. 6. Respond to the issue, not the emotion • You can honor the person waiting for your response with a quick response, as long as the response is purposeful andrespectful. Travel e22

8. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 7. Always give reasons when you make a request. • Researchers at Harvard, McGill and other prestigious universities around the world have determined that response rate is almost doubled when the reason for the request is provided, along with the request. Even if you think the recipient of your email knows why you're asking, you'll get a better response if you tell him/her again 8. Don't email jokes. Ever.. • Eliminate anything that is Crude & Rude. How do you know if it's C or R?If you think it is, it probably is • Writers use 10 times more rude remarks in email! 9. Email is a business communication • Email isn't as formal as a traditional mail document and it isn't as informal as conversation. Email is a business communication and should be written with that in mind Travel e22

9. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 10. Spell check and then read it before sending. Spell check is NOT ENOUGH! • Eliminate anything that is Crude & Rude. How do you know if it's C or R?If you think it is, it probably is 11. Be concise & precise. • Express much in fewwords. Useshortwords • Say thingsclearly, mustvaluetheir time • Ideally, we’d be able to simply respond “Yes” to another’s • request, and be done with it. • Realistically, this can be both confusing and rude tothe recipient. Even • when “yes” is all you may feel you need to say, take a breath and an • extra second to explain yourself. • “Yes, I like the idea”, “Yes, that makes sense”, “Yes,let’s roll with it”, • “Yes. Great idea!” Travel e22

10. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 12. Resist the urge to tell everyone, everything . 13. Do not put your logo everywhere, try not put any 14. Be careful with pictures 15. Sweat the details • Spell check • Reread Reread Reread! • Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht ordr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmaatnt tihng is taht the frist and the last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Travel e22

11. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 16. Avoid “ooops” emails • Don’t forget the attachments. Make the attachment first! 17. Consider separate emails for separate subjects • Never give good news and bad news in the same email 18. Don’t use CAPS, it is considered OFFENSIVE 19. Avoid “Reply All”s 20. NEVER EVER send jokes in your work emails... 21. NEVER EVER use Smiley faces in your work email Travel e22

12. How to write better Mailsthat our business count on 22. Make it short, clear and real: • Enclosed please find = I’ve attached • Please feel free to give me a call = please call me • Please feel free to give me a call = please call me • A.S.A.P*** = This is urgent 23. Answer questions within the body of their email. • When you’re presented with a list of questions, you’ll save time by responding directly after each question. 24. Write for the “hot zone”. Readers pay most attention to the beginning of an email. Make your message important to them within the first 3 lines (not sentences). Don’twaste precious times with platitudes like: “It was a pleasure talking to you today.” Travel e22

13. How to write better Mails 25. Don’t ask “unanswerable questions” Any question that your reader may think is appropriate for you to ask, or any question that requires an essay worth of information to fully answer is an UQ. “How are you?” is a perfect example ofan unanswerable question. Do you really want to know how they are? If so, be real Andcall them to find out. “What do you think about…” is another example. Do you expectthem to take the time to actually tell you what theythink? Pick up the phone! 26. Avoid annoying others. The top 5 email gripes are: Overusing capital letters Using too many abbreviations Leaving the subject line blank Being copied for no reason Writers being “overfriendly” Travel e22

14. Accept the limitations of Mail Here is short list of situations when using email isineffective or worse • When you're trying to reach consensus (takes significantly longer to do this with email) • Please feel free to give me a call = please call me • When the message is very long (call first and then use email to confirm the main points) • When the news is really bad ("routine" bad is fine; really bad is not) • When the reader has a different agenda than you do (and part of that is making you look bad) Travel e22

15. Accept the limitations of Mail • When the information is sensitive (disclaimers do not protect you!) • When the information is confidential (so easy to file and forward) • When you're communicating with someone who prefers the phone to email (duh!) • When the person is in the next cubicle and you easily could stick your head to the left of your computer and just ask! (The CEO of a large Convention and Visitors Bureau actually had the server shut down when he realized that people were emailing each other when they could have glanced over at that person and given them the information!) Travel e22

16. Accept the limitations of Mail • Am I trying to resolve a conflict? Pick up the phone or schedule a meeting. • What conversation am I avoiding? Is there more that I need to talk about with this person and am choosing to ignore it/not go there and take the easy way out by emailing? Travel e22

17. Our reliance on Mail could quickly become slavery.. • http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/06/29/go.email/index.html • http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/09/15/email.sins/index.html • http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/08/15/researchers_seek_to_untangle_the_e_mail_thread/ • http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/09/15/email.sins/index.html Travel e22