Email mistakes, we all make them, but whopping big mistakes shouldn’t be made too often.
I’ll never forget a frantic phone call I got from a client who asked how to get back an email she just sent to a customer, but had meant to only send to her sister. In the email she she trashed a customer and really got personal in a very mean way. The now past-customer was insulted and very angry as she should have been.
The best way to prevent big email whoppers is to set a delay send in your Gmail account (if you use it) and smartphone email accounts. I set my delay to 8 to 10 seconds giving me time to undo something if I need to with one click.
I’ll bet my client who got lambasted for being catty and sending the email to the customer and not her sister, wished she’d had that enabled.
Other big whopping email mistakes include, but are not limited to, asking employees, paid far less than you to pay, to pay for spilling something on your clothes; mentioning to others that you are intimate with a person they know too (but maybe did not know you were hooked up); clicking reply all when you really should just be talking personal to one in the chain not everyone (especially if you are venting or are angry); and mocking of others or employees in an email.
You can never take back something you sent too quickly, so take a moment to see if your own email application allows for delayed sending, just to keep you from making your own whopping big email mistake.