The first line of every email

I have mixed emotions about email. I love how it lets you think about your response and reply whenever you are ready, but I hate how many things that used to be done face-to-face or at least on the phone, are now deduced to email. Your perception of a person is reduced to a set of words on a screen and maybe a photo. It's not even close to the "bond" that you form by meeting in person or even talking on the phone.

One of my responsibilities as an engineer was to analyze consumer returns and drive corrective action projects to prevent the truly defective items from ever leaving the facility again. In doing this, I spent a lot of time with our customer service department (which was outsourced) that answered phone calls and emails from upset consumers. My purpose there was to work with them to ensure that they asked the types of questions to the consumer that would help me in my analysis. But in my time there, I learned the ins and outs of their entire process.

How did they start each and every phone call or email? With an apology. If a customer said "your crappy product wasted my time because it broke when I needed it most" they would reply "I'm certainly sorry sir and I can understand why that would be frustrating." That would help calm the customer down and make them feel as though we were on their side. We were there to help them solve a problem as opposed to get in an argument with them.

I apply the same thing directly to iPrioritize. Whenever someone complains that something didn't work or that it's lacking a feature that they thought it had, I start the email with "I apologize for the frustration and I can certainly understand how you would feel that way"...or something similar. It's amazing how much that helps.

But where I really find this "technique" valuable is in my everyday email communications with customers/clients/friends/family. I take the same philosophy and take it a step further. Whenever someone contacts me and asks me for something, or wants me to look at something they've done, I try to always start with a compliment. For example, if someone wants me to take on an SEO project for them, I always find something to compliment about their site or business concept before even mentioning anything about myself or SEO. Honestly, it works wonders.

Now, this is pretty much common sense, but I think most of us (myself included) have a tendency to think about ourselves and what we can get out of something, and don't take the time to recognize the work of others. This is something that I've made a conscious effort to improve the past few years - both online and offline - and it has really, really been helpful to me in every avenue of my social life.