Am I being a bit sensitive?
I've been asked by my client who run a recycling company to remove my email signature from my emails, or at least reduce the amount of space it takes up.
I send invoices and emails on behalf of my client but under my business name and apparently there have been a couple of complaints/comments that when they print them it runs to too many pages. Now my email signature has my company details, contact details, a couple of logos and the normal 'if it's not intended for you' script. Doesn't take up that much room.
I feel a bit aggrieved that I'm suddenly responsible for other people's printing habits. I rarely print emails unless there's something I need to have on file or need to cross reference and if I need to I either restrict the printing to one page or cut and paste the relevant bits I want to a blank document.- so why can't others do the same?
So, should I remove my email signature or should I stand my ground and say this is my branding, my identity and it's tough s**t??
Appreciate any comments!
Frustrated !!
Replies (16)
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If there have been a number of complaints then maybe it is a little too large but you could adjust the size of it as a whole (most likely candidates are the images) and see what happens from then on.
No point in annoying a client.
Remove it, nobody reads them
IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual
addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is
confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with
low self-esteem, no sense of humour or irrational religious beliefs. If
you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or
copying of this email is not authorised (either explicitly or
implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas, but if you're daft enough to let people like me have your e-mail address, you really only have yourself to blame.
Unless the word absquatulation has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and
may be ignored. No animals were harmed in the transmission of this
email, although the kelpie next door is living on borrowed time, let me
tell you. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be
gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading
this warning backwards, and yes, Paul is dead.
Every precaution has been taken to prevent viruses from infecting the email, but a good dose of Tamoxiflu or similar is recommended. This will leave 14,599,999 doses, still not enough for the UK population, so they won't miss one.
Remove it or make it smaller
Hi
I do print off emails and sometimes there is a lot of detail. I need to go through and I do not like doing that on the screen. Pages of info that are not relevant are really annoying.
If it is annoying people then that type of branding is not working if anything having the opposite affect.
Keep it simple with your company name and contact number. I think the client has a point it can be really annoying.
Kind Regards Douglas Accountancy and Bookkeeping Services Glasgow
Printing emails
If I want to print an email (rare) I will set the page range to print of 1-1. That means, only page 1 gets printed. It's not advanced IT usage, takes an extra 2 seconds, and means only the main message gets printed,
You don't need to cut your signature down, but you do need to add a "Think! Do you need to print this email?" in green, with a nice green tree motif to your emails. That'll show them ;-)
Perfect answer
If I want to print an email (rare) I will set the page range to print of 1-1. That means, only page 1 gets printed. It's not advanced IT usage, takes an extra 2 seconds, and means only the main message gets printed,
You don't need to cut your signature down, but you do need to add a "Think! Do you need to print this email?" in green, with a nice green tree motif to your emails. That'll show them ;-)
Problem solved :)
Sensitive emails
"I send invoices and emails on behalf of my client but under my business name"
I would ask a more fundamental question as to why you are sending invoices and emails out on behalf of a client but under your business name with and with your firm's details and presumably disclaimers on?
Does this not create some business risk for you and may be you should be looking to change the "from" headers to mask it as being from the client in which case your footer is no longer relevant.
If you are sending out your own emails then I believe one of the Institute Practice Assurance checks is whether you have the disclaimers on which adds support to your argument that you should do so on your own materials; in which case as Monsoon suggests, the recipient has the choice, if your footer runs onto another page of only printing off those pages they want - particularly if the email has been one that goes back and forth gaining length! That's what I do.
Agree with cwca
But you can edit out the crud and just print the bits you want, often people just keep reply to e-mails like tennis and the whole thing can run in to dozens of pages!
Institute Practice Assurance
Has my PA review this week with the Institute and this came up. So as OGA and cwca have said keep the disclaimers.
why not get client to set you up with an email@hisdomain?
then his his problem what goes on the footer
May I suggest ...
"The information in this document and any attached files is top secret and confusing and may also be very posh. It is intended solely for and should be read only by you (the recipient). In the event that you do not get this message please notify the sender by return. Help I'm being held prisoner by the Institute of Family Planning Accountants, they keep me in a Linux office and subject me to double entry all day without any roll over relief, please help! If however the contents of this email make no sense whatsoever then you probably were not the intended recipient and you should immediately delete yourself, download this for your computer and not disclose, copy, distribute, or retain any life or any part of it."
How about ...
.... putting the entire signature into a hyperlink to somewhere in the fog (excuse me, "cloud"). That way if they really want to read it they can click on it. In the meantime its paper footprint is a single line.
Somehow I don't expect it will be mist (excuse me, "missed").
With kind regards
Clint Westwood.