Supervisor Snacks

We’ve all done it!   We’ve dashed off and quickly sent an e-mail or instant message only to think of one more thing we should have said – so we quickly write that second thought and hit “send” again.   But WAIT, I should have told them this…and off goes a third message.   In the meantime, the recipient is writing a long answer to the first message, not knowing there is a correction in the second message, and more information in a third message.  They send their reply, and THEN see the additional messages, and now need to write something new.  What a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Let’s see if we can stop the crazy! Before you hit “send” on an e-mail, or “enter” on an instant message – hit REVIEW in your brain.  Go to the beginning of the message and read it as though you were receiving it. Fix the typos, fill in the words you left out.  Be sure you have complete content. More than 50% of the time you will clarify something, or realize you l...

We are living in a time where communication occurs at the speed of light. Especially now that we are all home-bound, we are letting our fingers do the talking as we text, tweet and email.   The speed of communications is great if you need information quickly, but speed kills when you respond first and ask questions later.   We are doing so much multitasking online as we keep several discussions going at the same time, that we increase our chances of mixing up conversations, being misunderstood, or worse, truly offending someone.  Slow down.  Here are six hints to keep your conversations cool.     When you can’t see facial expressions, or hear a tone of voice, it’s easy to misinterpret a message.  Read through what you have written before you press SEND.  This is especially true for the answering service industry.  Be sure your message says exactly what you want it to say.     Reading a message twice is a good idea when you a...