By Leslie O’Flahavan, E-WRITE and Rich Weborg, OneReach If your customers have opted-in to receive texts from your company, they probably realize that some of your texts are going to be automated....
Writing Matters Blog
How to Write an “I’m leaving my job” Email That Won’t Burn Bridges
This piece was originally published as part of the “Tough Talk” article series by Relate, where I’m honored to be a guest author. You’ve had the heart-to-heart with your boss about why it’s time for...
How to Write a Condolence for a Coworker
This piece was originally published as part of the "Tough Talk" article series by Relate, where I'm honored to be a guest author. My colleague, Frank, seemed distracted. He was taking days to...
Hiring? Nine interview questions you must ask applicants about their writing skills
At last, the economy is picking up a little. After a couple of years of "doing more with less," you may be lucky enough to be hiring. Maybe you've spent all morning digging through cover letters,...
How to Write Email Templates That Don’t Make Customer Service Agents Sound Like Robots
When it comes to writing emails to customers, contact center managers fall into two camps. The first is the “Have You Seen Their Writing?” camp. In this camp, managers are so concerned about their...
E-WRITE’s Eight-Course Writing Curriculum Helped a Government Agency Write Right
Over the last six months I’ve been involved in a dream-come-true project. For the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), I developed a full writing curriculum—a set of eight different writing...
Princeton Review: Don’t send me a huffy e-mail when I unsubscribe
So, it's like that, Princeton Review. You loved me when I subscribed to receive your weekly School Research Service e-mails, but now that my daughter's been accepted to college and I've...
What We Can Learn About Customer Service Writing from the Hair in the Starbucks Oatmeal
While on a work trip to Las Vegas, I found a long, straight hair in my Starbucks oatmeal. I wasn't happy. With stomach rolling, I put down my spoon and reached for my phone to tweet Starbucks. I was...
Webinar: How to Harness the Power of Chat in Your Contact Center
My September 24, 2015 webinar: How to Harness the Power of Chat in Your Contact Center. I'll be co-presenting with Ross Haskell, Senior Director of Products, BoldChat. The webinar's hosted by...
How Web Design Trends are Changing the Way We Write Content
Many thanks to guest blogger Becky R. Schoenfeld for this great write-up of my session at Association Media & Publishing's 2015 Annual Meeting. Becky is managing editor of QST, the monthly...
Interview with Heidi and Betty: Customer Service Email Superstars at Cabela’s
In this blog, I often comment on the best (and worst) ways to write email to customers. Today, I'm honored to feature two excellent, productive customer service agents who do this important work....
Video Interview: How to Improve Email Response Time
Since 2011, my friend and colleague Jeff Toister, of Toister Performance Solutions, has conducted an annual survey on email response time, asking these straightforward questions: How fast do you...