Guidelines for Business Texting
Do you send and receive phone texts as a regular and accepted business practice?
While texting practices vary by industry, profession, organization and individual, users of nearly every demographic rely on phone text messaging (at least to some degree) to conduct business.Since texting is often viewed as an informal means of communicating, however, many fail to develop texting protocols for their organizations or themselves. Meanwhile, texting behaviors that lack structure often create complications—from mild annoyances to major problems
If you’re ready to instill some guidelines or simply conduct an evaluation of your texting policies, the following considerations can inspire wiser texting habits with more positive interactions and outcome:
Do you have explicit permission to text your contact? A contact’s willingness to supply a phone number does not necessarily convey an open agreement to communicate via texting. If the other party is opposed to a phone texting relationship, the cost of pressing the issue would outweigh any benefit.
Would a texting relationship be appropriate considering who the contact is and the circumstances of your connection? No matter how routine texting appears on the surface, all kinds of factors—from your respective positions in an organization or field to the degree of trust you share—can determine whether or not you should initiate a texting relationship or encourage one. A text created and sent in a matter of seconds could spark the controversy of a lifetime.
Have you established the terms by which you will text? Specifying when and what you’ll communicate by text—whether as the norm or as the way to share only highly time-sensitive information—clarifies expectations like any other professional agreement should.
Are you 100 percent certain that the intended recipient knows who you are? Rather than relying upon people or their phones to have maintained your contact information, start off your message by briefly identifying who you are if the recipient is not someone whom you regularly call or text. You’ll minimize frustration and the probability that you’ll be deleted.
Is the timing of the message appropriate? Consider whether or not the text should arrive only during business hours or within other designated periods. Despite certain exceptions, those who wouldn’t think twice about a business-related email or a LinkedIn message appearing at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday could strongly object to receiving a phone text at that time.
Does the message have merit? To ensure that business and professional contacts take you seriously, make every text message count by sending only valuable and pertinent news and insights.
Is texting the best option? Texts are ideally suited to quick communications. If the news is long and complicated, choose other avenues, including voice or video conferencing.
Will the recipient understand your abbreviations? Don’t put others at a disadvantage by using cryptic code words or in-the-know abbreviations. If you are not utterly certain that the recipient would automatically realize that by LMK you mean let me know, then spell out every word.
Have you read the message before sending it? Take a few seconds to read your message aloud slowly to make sure you’ve written what you intended to convey. Typos and missing words might be acceptable in texts among friends and family, but they spell u-n-p-r-o-f-e-s-s-i-o-n-a-l in business circles.
Have you followed up? Minimize phony excuses and genuine communication glitches. Follow through by habitually acknowledging messages sent to you and by making certain the information you shared reached your intended recipient(s).
Whether or not we rely on texting to communicate with our business contacts now or in the future, we can pretty much count on changing our methods as innovations allow. Most certainly, being thoughtful and professional about what and how we communicate will always speak volumes about who we are.
My best to you,
Sallie W. Boyles, a.k.a. Write Lady