Ruby Lane Customer Care & Share: Watch Your Tone!

The tone of your message is the mood that your message conveys to the reader. In a message to a friend, the tone of your e-mail may be informal, light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, or comical. A message to a colleague, customer or business associate may be more formal, serious, professional, or analytical.

The following article was originally written for the Ruby Lane forums. However many of the tips offered can be used when communicating with virtually any company's Customer Support desk. Employing some of these tools are likely to make your next experience with a customer support representative (from an airline to your local cable company) more successful:

Ruby Lane Customer Care & Share: Avoid Flaming! 

A ‘flame’ is any e-mail that’s inflammatory (hence the name). Flames are most often the result of unbridled anger.

Ruby Lane Customer Care & Share: Word Choice

Using weak words or including unnecessary words to fluff up your sentences can dilute the impact of your message. Try to choose descriptive words that really say what you mean.

QUESTION: My father traveled to and from Britain in the early 1960s. He was a passenger on the plane when the Beatles first traveled to America. I have two publications signed by all four Beatles. The first is Beatles in Paris / Boyfriend Photonews Extra!, a 16-page, black and white newsprint publication. The second is "Fabulous" Goes All Beatles: John, Paul, George, Ringo, Plus Cilla, 16 pages featuring 11 king-size color pin-ups. I saw an Antiques Roadshow episode suggesting these pieces with all four Beatles signatures have far more value than just a memory of my Dad?s traveling.