Emailing from your mobile? Beware the pitfalls

Has anyone else noticed that when people respond to an email on their mobile a couple of things often happen;

• Firstly they don’t read your complete email, screens are small and time is short.
• Secondly the reply often makes no sense as keyboards are poor, auto correct is often random, and grammar and punctuation are totally ignored.
• Thirdly they don’t give you the info you need, refer to point 1.

Email is still the most important medium for business communications and it deserves more of your attention.

Smartphones are getting more prolific so the problem will get worse. Over 30% of all UK mobile phones are smartphones and you just need to walk into any high street phone shop to see they are gaining big ground.

So what can we do about this? As the sender we need to embrace brevity and only email when you need to. To all those who think it’s clever to reply to all or cc everyone please stop. It’s not clever, it does not make you look important, and it does not cover your ass. Being good at your job covers your ass.

We all use our smartphone to answer emails but if your response is ill considered and your point not delivered well then I would suggest you resist the urge to respond immediately and wait until you are back at your desk. Very few emails are that important.