Most careers require professionals to use an email application to communicate with coworkers and customers. Because of this, proper email etiquette can be important for every professional to learn. If you often send and receive emails, it can be beneficial to know how to draft a response email for common professional situations. In this article, we explain how to draft a response email and a template you can use to write your own response email.
How to write a response email
A response email is any follow-up email you may need to write when a customer, coworker or other professional reaches out to you. In order to draft a general response email, follow these steps:
1. Respond quickly
After reading a business email, it is proper email etiquette to respond within 24 hours of the time you first received the email. If you are able to reply sooner, that can be even better. This allows professionals to continue their work in a timely manner.
2. Start with a greeting
Start your reply email with a polite greeting. If the previous sender offered you a particular greeting phrase, it can be polite to return a similar one. For example, if the professional wrote something like this:Hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.Then you might want to consider starting your response with a phrase such as:Hi! My weekend was great. I hope you had a good one as well.
3. Reply to questions or concerns in separate lines
As you begin to draft the body of your email, try to keep each topic you address separated. This means that you should begin a new paragraph with every question or concern you address. For example, if a coworker emailed you to ask when a project’s deadline is and who is the primary contact for HR concerns, you may format your reply like this:The project’s deadline is next Wednesday, September 10th.For HR concerns, you can contact our department’s representative, Diane Charles. Her email is DC******@***il.com.
4. Ask for confirmation of understanding
After you respond to the original email’s subjects, it can be effective to ask if the recipient understands your response. You may also want to offer your availability to answer any additional questions. Here are some phrases you may want to consider using:
- Does this answer your question?
- Does that make sense?
- Let me know if this helps.
- Let me know if you have any more questions.
- I’ll be in my office until five pm today, so feel free to reach out again.
5. Include closing remarks and your signature
To end your email, consider using a brief closing phrase and then add your email signature. You may want to write something like this:
Have a great day!
Best,
Vel Blake
General response email template
To draft your own response email, try to follow this template for emails that need a general reply:
Hello [recipient name],
[Response to their greeting or regular greeting].
[Reply to the first topic.]
[Reply to the second topic, if applicable]
[Ask for a confirmation of understanding]
[Closing remark]
Sincerely,
[Your name]