Claimstrainer Blog

Email Best Practices (Tips)



Claims customer care email is of major importance. Always include the claim number or other identifying information.  If available, Place a copy of the carrier logo on the email. What follows is a list of Best Practices for e-mail etiquette that allows you to communicate with claims customers more effectively:

1. Be extremely careful in using certain keys or functions:

• The bold key, the underline key, and the all caps key are the equivalent of shouting at someone. The exception is their use in titling a document.

• The exclamation point is often used to show anger and frustration.

• The broadcast list function can either save time or clog up the server and burden all the recipients with yet one more e-mail to read.

• The send key sends without any possibility of retrieval.

 2. Determine if e-mail is the best way to cornmunicate a message. Sometimes picking up the phone and speaking with someone directly will result in a more expedient and satisfactory solution.

3. Make absolutely certain that your information is accurate. Because e-mail can be printed, archived, forwarded, and broadcasted, it becomes a permanent, un-erasable document with your name attached to it. Contrary to what the delete key says, e-mail is never permanently deleted and can be retrieved.

4. If you are angry or emotional, don't send an e-mail. Cool off; sleep on it, and then reconsider your response. Once you have determined your response, put yourself in the receiver's place and determine how you would feel receiving it.

5. Reread each e-mail for spelling errors and correct grammar. E-mail is often treated like a "flow of consciousness." In this mode, the attitude can be that if a word is misspelled, so be it. However just as letters shouldn't go out with misspelled words, incomplete sentences, the wrong punctuation, or grammatical errors, e-mail should be afforded the same attention.

6. Keep it fairly short and friendly. Many people limit their e-mails to what can be viewed at one time on the screen. Others limit it to two pages. In any case, don't create an attachment if you can get the same information in the body of the e-mail, unless formatting is important. Then an attachment with bullets and tabs will look and print much better.        

7. Be discriminating when attaching lengthy attachments. They take time to download, especially in remote locations, and time to read. Also, make certain that you attach the correct document.  

8. Consider the volume of e-mail a recipient receives before inclusion in a broadcast list. Also consider if a "cc:" is really needed

9.Be extremely wary of sending anything that could be viewed as sexist, sexual, racist, or disparaging to others. A number of Fortune 500companies have had to fire employees when it was documented that they e-mailed trade secrets, sent racist jokes, or engaged pornographic sites. The stakes are very high in terms of what employees can and can't send via company communications. Aside from losing important proprietary information, law-suits addressing a "hostile workplace environment" can lead to million-dollar lawsuits.

10. Be very careful about marking something "urgent." Use this warning only when it is required.

11. If you have not had any correspondence with someone, introduce yourself with your first e-mail by identifying your company, a mutual colleague, an area of interest, your background, or some important linking.

12. Always update or complete the subject heading on the e-mail. The subject heading should be indicative of the content of the e-mail. This courtesy will help individuals who receive numerous e-mails each day to prioritize those which need action first.

13. If you only e-mail someone periodically, use a greeting and a closing.

14.   If you are in constant and consistent e-mail relationships with data going back and forth many times in one day, it is not nec­essary to use a greeting every time. However, it is polite to do a brief sign-off, like a simple "Thanks." In face-to-face com­munication, we have body language to communicate human­ness. In voice mail, we have words.

15.   If you set up telephone or in-person appointments using e-mail, be certain to follow up to confirm with a phone call. Systems and servers go down and nothing is totally foolproof— technology or one's memory.

16.   Be sure to check your e-mail at least twice a day and more if you receive time-sensitive information. If you are not able to check your e-mail for a period of time be sure to leave an out­going message indicating the date when you will be reading and responding to your messages.

17.   Keep communication clear by marking your e-mail message with FYI or the action that you require. It is important to be thorough and explicit in your communication by directing the recipient on what to do with the information you have provided.

18.   Company e-mail is just that. It belongs to the company. They are paying for it and providing the systems to send and retrieve it. Company e-mail isn't intended for privacy and doesn't provide it. In fact almost 30 percent of companies reg­ularly monitor e-mail according to the American Manage­ment Association. If you want absolute privacy, register for your own account, paid for by you and accessed only on your home computer.