8
Make Effective Requests

Most of the e-mails you send ask another person to take some kind of action, such as sending invoice information, giving feedback on a proposed project, or confirming attendance at an upcoming meeting. How well your e-mail elicits the response you desire has everything to do with how effectively you’ve crafted your request. A well-written request consists of three major ingredients.

Detailed action. Imagine receiving an e-mail from your boss asking for a list of all the new customer accounts in the past six months. You diligently go about gathering the information: sorting the data into size of client, location of offices, frequency and type of sales, contact information, and so on. Once you have printed and bound the document, you present it to your boss, who looks at you as if you are crazy, and says, “I just needed an overhead containing client names for the quarterly meeting tomorrow.” Aaaaggghhh!

If your boss had been more specific, and asked for a one-page overview of new clients closed in the past six months, the boss would have gotten what he or she wanted, and you would have been saved time and irritation.

Specific time frame. Because they signify different things to different people, terms such as soon, immediately, when you get a chance, and as soon as possible should be used sparingly. For example, when you write immediately in an e-mail, you might mean “drop everything and do this now.” The receiver might translate the same word to mean “as soon as I have finished what I am working on.” If you have a tight deadline, the difference between these two interpretations could be the difference between success and failure.

To avoid any confusion, always state time frames in clear, unambiguous terms such as “at 3 p.m. tomorrow,” “today by noon,” “on Wednesday, January 23, at 10 a.m.,” and so on.

Mutual understanding. Many times when you make a request, the other person knows exactly what you are talking about because you are both aware of the background and circumstances involved. For example, if you sent an e-mail to a coworker who has been assisting you in creating a new Website, a request such as “Please call the Web designer today and make sure she has everything she needs” would be acceptable because the “needs” are known by both of you. There is no need for clarification because you mutually understand what is involved. However, if you sent the same request to a coworker who had no knowledge of the project, you would need to go into greater detail in the e-mail, so that the request could be fulfilled satisfactorily.

Exercise

Read the following four examples of requests. Rate each of them based upon how effective they would be in getting the desired result.

1. I hope you received the e-mail I sent you yesterday with the preliminary design plans for the new reception area. I’d appreciate it if you could take a look at them when you get a moment.

Poor Okay Good Great Why

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2. Next week I will be out on vacation so it’s important that I receive all unprocessed orders by end of day tomorrow (Thursday, August 21). Any orders that I do not receive tomorrow will have to wait until I get back, which will be Monday, September 1st. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me before noon on Friday, August 22.

Poor Okay Good Great