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E-Mail Protocol Survey

How Well Does Your Company Handle E-Mail?

E-mail has become the biggest productivity drain in businesses today. Getting a handle on this daily data dump by establishing procedures—protocol if you will—will make you and your company stand above the crowd. And, possibly bring law and order to the untamed world of Internet communication. What are your “best practices”? Do your employees follow the established e-mail protocol in your organization?

Here is a short list of questions that we often use with our clients to begin identifying issues around their e-mail protocol. A more comprehensive list is available in our workshops.

Feel free to use this survey as a way to open a conversation at your company.

Evaluating Your E-mail Protocol

Use this short assessment as a vehicle to begin evaluating the current e-mail protocol you have in place. Use the points below to indicate where your company stands.

No standard or rule in place: 1

Standard is in place, but not being used properly: 2

Standard is in place and is properly used: 3

1. My employees use a standard approach to opening and closing e-mails to customers.
2. My employees have a standard e-mail signature that extends our company's brand.
3. My company has a policy for blind copies.
4. My company has a standard for when employees are to turn on their out-of-office auto-responders.
5. My employees check their e-mail at least four times daily.
6. My employees return all e-mails within 24-hours.
7. My employees know when it's appropriate to communicate by phone, face-to-face or e-mail.
8. My employees proofread their e-mails before they are sent out.
9. We have a policy against using emoticons in e-mails.
10. My employees have been trained in our e-mail protocol.
Total Score

What your total score means:

30-25: Congratulations! You have exceptionally strong e-mail protocol in place. We'd love to share our E-Mail Checklist: 16 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Hitting “Send” with you. Click here to e-mail us your request.

24-20: Your company has some procedures in place and/or your employees basically follow your e-mail protocol. Let's talk about coaching your team to e-mail writing excellence! Click here to submit your information.

19-11: Let's get your employees on board! Click here to find out how we can help you with our customized on-site workshops and programs.

To start a conversation with Business Writing That Counts! about developing e-mail procedures at your company, contact us at info@drjuliemiller.com or 425-485-3221. Or, have your employees take advantage of our latest online module—E-Mail Writing That Counts!—now. Learn more!