Email Contact
Email – Short for electronic mail, e-mail is the transmission of messages over communications networks.
You most likely already have an email account with your agency, but accounts can also be set up with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and other email providers. “Over 80% of small business owners believe e-mail is a key to the success of their business. “Even more interesting, 62% believe email is just as effective or more effective than in-person or phone communication” (Campbell, 2007). Letting teens contact a professionals directly via email can be useful, but there are also things you need be aware of.
Benefits for using: Adolescents can reach you easily; they may feel more comfortable contacting you through email than in person or over the phone; and they can contact you as needed. Contact can be less costly, less time-consuming and convenient (Campbell, 2007).
Concerns for using: How you word the email can be critical – there can be loss of context if you don’t fully explain yourself through your words, and the tone can be misleading if it is misinterpreted from the other end; email is less personal than meeting face-to-face; lack of real-time conversation can lead to misunderstandings that take time to clarify; and as always, contact may be inconsistent due to the adolescent’s access to their email (Campbell, 2007).
How much control does one have: You can control what you say and do from your end, but not what the teen will do with it. Forwarding your message or printing it out only takes a click of a button.
What are security and privacy concerns: Privacy can be a risk factor if your email is hacked. Make sure if you are going to be emailing clients that you always log off your email provider or computer when stepping away from your desk and never give out your password. Always keep records of the conversations with clients either by saving emails or printing and saving them in a locked file at the office for documentation purposes.
What are legality concerns: Check with your agency what their policy is about communicating with adolescents that contact you, or for you to be in contact with teens. Most agencies do not allow contacting clients via email so for you to be able to have email contact policies may need to be updated with a protocol for what topics will be discussed through email.
Time management: Email contact should not add too much time to a group facilitator's day as you can respond to emails at your leisure.
Tip: Look into other programs that exist already on the web. A program I used through a classroom to offer online mentoring to students was Gaggle. Gaggle allowed for every student and mentor to be issued their own email address and a moderator viewed every email that was sent to/from the account. In addition, the program created a group mailing where the email could be sent to everyone in the group. I also had the option to have my emails from gaggle forwarded to my work email account so I did not have to check both my work and the gaggle email accounts.
For more help with professional email correspondence
- The Owl at Purdue Email Etiquette
- Writing Effective Emails – Top 10 Tips
- Manners and Tone of Emails
- Email Tone isn’t Understood as Much as We Think
Next: Email Support Group