E-Mail for Claims Examiners - Part 1

Monday, March 4, 2002 | 0

The digital age is becoming more and more a part of the claims examiner's daily life, and nothing is more pervasive, or more functional, than electronic mail, or e-mail in common jargon. As in most things, there are proper ways to use e-mail that will promote efficiency, make good impressions, and otherwise ensure good digital hygiene.

The rules are simple and are common sense, especially if you are an Internet veteran. Claims examiners should be aware of e-mail dos and don'ts as they can positively (or adversely) impact the impression others have of your claims department. Our next couple of articles will review some e-mail etiquette.

Before you put your fingers to the keyboard (or in some more progressive companies, dictation headset on), really think about how you want the recipient of your message to react. Remember that e-mail is almost instantaneous. Once you "send" you cannot retrieve it and the recipient will be advised of your thoughts almost instantly. Consequently, be sure to carefully proofread your mail before you send it - does the message convey accurately what you want to say in the manner that you intend?

The subject line is the single most important part of your message. The subject is almost always read first, and determines whether the reader will take the time immediately to read your mail, or defer it, if read it at all. The subject line should be short and direct. It's okay to use abbreviations and acronyms in the subject line as long as they can be understood by the recipient.

Nothing can be more irritating in today's computing environment than receiving an e-mail that has spelling and grammatical errors. Virtually all e-mail clients these days have built in spelling and grammar checking functions and they don't add but a couple of seconds to your mail processing. Use them or risk being viewed as lazy, incompetent, and/or insincere.

Author Cyndi Koppany is Vice President in charge of Training for Cambridge International. She can be reached at ckcyndi_koppany@cisgi.com.