branding

Read Part 2. Read Part 3.

I get a lot of email. Too much email some might say. My inbox starts filling up well before Vickie Milazzo Institute opens, with internal business. I had no idea how much email employees could generate, correspondence from vendors, email from students and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who need mentoring and who just want to say hello and share their CLNC^® success. Fortunately, I am blessed to be the recipient of professional emails 99% of the time. But the other 1% is what I want to talk about in this blog.

Why is someone communicating to me in all CAPITAL letters or with bad spelling, poor punctuation, rambling styles and with no subject line (Really!). And if that someone is a legal nurse consultant, I worry that they are communicating with their attorney-clients and attorney-prospects, experts and other legal nurse consultants in the same unprofessional way. I have to assume they are. After all, with the possible exception of people with multiple personality disorders (You know who you are, and so do you and you.), most people don’t magically switch styles when they switch email accounts. In fact, some even use the same email account for business and personal – another no-no.

In just three blogs, I’m going to give Certified Legal Nurse Consultants the tips that will guarantee the professionalism of your email communications with your attorney-clients.

Tip #1

Get a real email address. Attorneys communicate with other professionals – attorneys, doctors, engineers, economists, etc. Professionals have email addresses like Marcus.Welby@GeneralHospital.org or B.Smith@SmithBarney.com. Those email addresses communicate more professionalism than NrseJckee2@email.com or LikesKittens@whatever.org.

When you send a business letter you use letterhead stationery and a matching envelope. Think of your email address as your envelope and make it reflect your professionalism. If you have a domain name for your legal nurse consulting business you can easily set up an email account with the hosting provider and have your email address be congruent with your business name. Think Susan.Smith@SmithLegalNurseConsulting.com. That’s called branding and it’s a powerful tool in the right hands.

Tip #2

Use a “Subject:” that makes it clear what the email is about. Many people do not use the “preview” function in their email client which forces them to open the email to see what it’s about. Have you ever opened an email only to find it’s not what you expected or because you couldn’t figure out what it was? I recommend you use a subject that is clear and makes sense, not only today but in a few weeks when you’re searching for an email in a cluttered inbox or “sent” mailbox. If you’re working on a particular case, include the case name somewhere in the subject. If it relates to a meeting, include the date (re: Hawkins case – 10/26 client interview notes) and anything else that will help the recipient decide what priority to assign to reading it.

When someone sends me an email with a bad subject line and I then either reply or forward it, I’ll often correct the subject line by putting my (sensible) subject in front of their (unintelligible) subject. By keeping their subject in the line, they’ll know what the email is about and can delete their subject from further replies, etc. Also, if you change the subject matter of the email, make the appropriate change to the subject line. It only makes sense.

Tip #3

Organize your inbox with folders. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants don’t just keep one general inbox with 547 emails on various subjects. They create subfolders organized by case names or other relevant naming conventions. You do this just like you create paper files in your office. After replying to an email, drag that email into the appropriate folder. That keeps your inbox clear and uncluttered. If you’re waiting for a response, you might keep the original email until you get the response and then file both. Depending upon the communication you can often put a “sent” folder inside each subfolder. Then file the sent email there for easier recall later. This beats searching through a crowded “sent” mailbox and is another reason for using strong subject lines. It makes it easier when searching through those archived messages weeks or months after they’ve been sent or since you last looked at a case.

Tip #4

When you need to communicate a really short message to someone, then do it inside the subject line of the email. End the subject line with “NoMsg” or “EOM” (end of message). This is a wonderful way to communicate a short message to someone. The non-preview people really love this one.

Tip #5

Spend a few minutes figuring out how to turn on the spell-checking function of your particular email client. We use Outlook^® and it’s got a pretty good speller. Just about every email client has a spell-checking function either built in or available as an add-on. If yours does not, then compose your email in Word or another word-processing program that has a spell checker and then cut and paste it over to your email. Nothing, and I mean, nothing (except bad grammar) spells unprofessional more than spelling errors. Even my BlackBerry^® has a spell-checking feature. This helps prevent minor and major typographical errors (but does not replace proofreading). If you do one thing for your legal nurse consulting career after reading this blog, please let it be this tip.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share your tips for professional email communications.

On my trip from Houston to San Diego to attend the christening of my new great-niece Reese, I experienced a strong dose of branding. Many of you know I enjoy my cups of healthy green tea almost as much as I enjoy a glass of healthy red wine. You probably don’t know that I have a secret addiction for Starbucks^® coffee. One that’s not entirely healthy if I’m not careful to tame it. I don’t get a Starbucks fix on a daily basis, but I manage to fit in two-three cups a week (usually at least one free one) on my morning walks with Tom. So, anytime I hit an airport in the morning (and I tend to fly only in the morning), my internal GPS goes off as soon as I clear security. That GPS will lead Tom and me directly to the airport’s Starbucks for my “red-eye.”

Tom’s favorite part of flying is sitting in Continental Airline’s Presidents Club. It’s all I can do to keep him from getting us to the airport three hours before our flight. He likes the free newspapers and will plow through the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Houston Chronicle and The Financial Times and then jump on the club’s free wireless Internet to blow through his email on his laptop – all before we head to the gate. Even though I’m a president, I’m not crazy about the Presidents Clubs. From my point of view, although the seats are comfortable and the restrooms are clean, there’s no decent food. We usually fly before the bar is open and, here’s my pet peeve, the coffee is terrible.

As part of the process of being married for almost 19 years, we’ve worked out a bargain (one of many). I agree to get to the airport a little early. Tom agrees to go to Starbucks with me for my Starbucks fix. Then we both go to the Presidents Club so Tom can get his “news” fix. That bargain sometimes turns out to be more than Tom expected and a little frustrating for him as our last few flights have gone out of gates 27 or 30 in Terminal C at Houston’s George Bush Airport (IAH) and the closest Starbucks is way over in Terminal E. In fact, it’s so far that I joke with Tom that it’s in another time zone. What makes it frustrating for him is not just that we’ll have to walk one mile across the entire width of the airport, but that we’ll pass by at least two other brands of coffee shops (Peet’s and Einstein Bagels) and any number of fast food joints serving coffee on the way to the Starbucks in Terminal E. Tom loves to drink coffee, but he doesn’t really care that much about the brand. It can be airline coffee, McDonald’s coffee or even the brown water they call coffee in our office. As long as it’s hot, he’s happy. Me, I’m stuck on Starbucks. In fact, I’m so hooked, I go without coffee if I can’t find a Starbucks. Now that’s brand identification!

Let me ask you about your brand as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Do you provide your attorney-clients with the quality of service that creates that sort of brand identification with you? Will your attorney-clients use only you for their medical-related cases? Are you the first and only legal nurse consultant they think of? If yes, you’ve accomplished what all entrepreneurs strive for. If no, ask yourself what you can do to create the Starbucks experience for your attorney-clients. Make it more than just providing the best CLNC^® work product available. Add a little lagniappe (as we say in New Orleans) – something more. In the technology age when everyone emails each other, show up at the door with bagels and a box of Starbucks coffee, deliver a bottle of champagne after your attorney-client wins or settles a big case or send a handwritten thank-you note.

I’d like you to comment and post some of your favorite tips for fostering brand loyalty to your own CLNC^® business. While you’re doing that, I’ll have another cup of one of my favorite brands.

Success Is Inside!