In today's high-stakes business games, not all errors are forgiven and forgotten, of course.  Some may even cost a person his or her job.  But in many cases, by taking responsibility and by solving the problem, you may navigate the troubled waters with little if any negative effect on your career.  To deny responsibility - to reflexively say, "That's not my fault!" - is almost guaranteed to infuriate everybody.

- Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

No matter who the visitor is or what the situation is, any time you come around from behind your desk and sit near someone, you set up a friendly climate for a more relaxed discussion.

- Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

- Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

One of the clearest ways to determine if an email is the best way to communicate with the recipient is to ask yourself if it focuses on who, what, when, or where.  If, however, your email delves into why or opinion, you may want to think twice about sending it.  The recipient only has your words on the page to decipher your meaning, intent, and tone.  Without visual clues or the sound of your voice your message can easily be misunderstood.

- Peter Post, Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

Honesty is so refreshing, isn't it? I was recently at a restaurant with my daughter, and we had something so interesting happen that it's worth sharing. While looking over the menu items, we both wanted to order meals on the healthier side. When the server stopped to take our order, she quickly deducted, by our conversation and menu orders, that we were trying to be healthy. She mentioned to us, very confidently, that if we want a lower calorie and lower fat meal, the turkey burger is not a good choice. She told us that she found out that it is injected with fat for flavor, which triples the calories and puts the fat content at a very high percentage. How refreshing to know the truth!  And, how she did this was in a caring and informative manner and not in a way to slam the restaurant. 

Do you use proper email etiquette?  Knowing and using proper etiquette is imperative since it is, more than likely, your most used platform for communicating with your customers.  How you "show up" via email is a direct reflection of how you do business and greatly impacts your customers' ongoing perception and trust in you.  Let's make sure that your largest area of exposure to your customers (emailing) is something that you and the rest of your company do better than the rest.