3 Email Tools You Need to Know About
Emails are the primary means of communication with clients in a professional services environment and understanding the basics of how emails work is essential to being successful in the modern working environment. However, there are additional tools beyond the basics that you should have in your toolkit in case you need them. Today, I’m going to share with you 3 email tools that you need to know about while working in the modern business world and how they can help you succeed.
NOTE - Before I get into the tools, it’s important to know that this content will assume you are using Microsoft Outlook for your emails, as most organizations do. Other mail platforms will also have these tools, but you may need to do additional research to learn how to use them.
Delivery Receipt / Read Receipt
A delivery receipt will notify you when your message has been delivered to the recipient. A read receipt will notify you when your recipient has opened your email. These tools are very useful when working with busier clients that may not see your email. Having the knowledge that your messages were delivered or read can put your mind at ease when dealing with client communications.
Message Recall
Message recall allows you to retrieve an unread message from your recipients’ mailboxes. It’s important to note that this feature is only available if both you and the recipient have a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange email account in the same organization. While this tool is limited to only people in your organization, it can still save your life if you send an incomplete email to the wrong person. Taking back an incomplete or poorly worded message can be a much better alternative to sending a correcting follow up email. It’s almost like it never happened!
Delay Delivery / Schedule Send
The Delay Delivery and Schedule Send features will let you send emails while you are not working. There are plenty of scenarios where waiting to send an email is beneficial. Such as:
Having an email come across a client’s inbox on a Monday morning instead of the weekend will help ensure it gets seen instead of lumped into the “weekend pile.” This is particularly effective because most people have message notifications enabled and seeing something important in those notifications during work hours will trigger some people to act immediately.
If you aren’t 100% sure about the content of the email, giving yourself time to cancel the email if you need to change something is much better than scrambling the message recall feature noted above.
Some people don’t like when they receive a message late at night because they feel an obligation to respond timely. If you are working with someone who may put pressure on themselves to respond at odd hours or is simply not happy when contacted outside of regular work hours, utilizing the delay delivery feature can help you land a message in their inbox at a friendlier time for them.
Of the three tools mentioned in this article, this one has been the most useful for me by far. I am able to schedule my client follow-up emails and staff instruction emails so that key information is communicated in both a timely manner and in a way that allows the other party to act quickly.
There you have it! If you can properly utilize these features and combine them with proper email etiquette, you will be communicating like a professional in no time.