By: Jeff Toister (submitted by Carmen Gass)

A lot of customer service problems could be solved (or prevented) if people wrote better emails.

**Check Your Email Before Sending It**

Customer service emails are frequently misunderstood, misconstrued, or simply miss the mark.

Here’s a simple checklist you can use to review your own emails before sending. You won’t use this for every email, but try using it with a few until you get the hang of it.

* Tone: Does the tone of the email sound friendly?
* Readability: Did you use appropriate grammar, punctuation, and spelling?
* Action-oriented: Did you state the purpose of the email in the first paragraph?
* Helpfulness: Does the email provide additional information the recipient is likely to need?
* Image: Is the email professionally written?