How A Standard Email Format Changed Our Relationships with Clients

I recently saw a blog article titled “The Email Line That’s Client Repellent” and clicked through, thinking “I hope I don’t do this…” and when I read the article, guess what? GUILTY!

That one article drastically changed my entire mindset on how we communicate with clients. I immediately decided to institute a standard format for communicating with clients, and see how it worked. Guess what? We now spend less time writing emails, reading emails, and better than anything else – less time trying to get the information and/or data we need from clients.

The big thing, like that article says: Don’t ask clients what do next – tell them what the next steps are. This is why they’re paying you.

Also: Avoid the dreaded Wall of Text. (No one reads those, trust me.)

Here’s our format:

Greeting

Bulleted Update #1
Bulleted Update #2
Bulleted Update #3

Next Steps: (Describe the action you will take on behalf of the client)

Bulleted Step #1
Bulleted Step #2
Alternative Step(s) to #1 or #!

Call to Action

Tell the client what you need from them to continue with Next Steps

Closing

For those of you that already knew this, I applaud you for being much quicker on the uptake than me.

Firm Management