In today’s ‘always on’ environment, it can be hard to know what is and isn’t the done thing in terms of communications etiquette.  The parameters of what is permissible have blurred. Mobile phone, PDA, voicemail etiquette - it’s all so confusing!!

Rubbish. In essence, nothing has really changed.  First impressions still count. Friendliness and politeness are still invaluable assets and attention to detail will always be a deal breaker.

OK, so replying to emails on your BlackBerry may force you to dispose with some of the niceties and be a little more to the point than you may usually be, but all that can be a softened with a note in your signature along the lines of ‘Apologies for my brevity or any typos in this message, I’m on my BlackBerry’.

Looking at the time and judging whether it’s an appropriate time to call someone still applies as does judging when to take calls.  Years ago if you were having a business meeting, you wouldn’t have dreamed of taking a call in the middle of it, so why would you now consider answering your mobile?  In some shops too, I find it surprising the number of sales assistants who find it acceptable to take calls while at the same time taking my money.  If you have voicemail – use it, if you don’t – get it!

For some businesses, the growth of mobile phone, PC and IM “presence” tools like twitter and Jaiku will make it easier to know when approaches are appropriate.  “Presence” tools use icons to indicate whether someone’s in a meeting, on holiday etc. and are starting to automatically link to calendars.   Knowing when someone is or isn’t available is a lot smarter than playing telephone tag!

In essence it’s still all about treating everyone as a potential customer, may be not today but quite possibly tomorrow. Answering the phone with a smile, may sound a little cheesy but the person at the other end of the phone will be able to tell and it makes a difference.

With written communications, it is even more essential to get things right as you don’t have the opportunity to charm them with your winning personality.  Spellcheckers (and please can Microsoft learn that not everyone wants to spell “American”!!) mean there really is no excuse for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.  And no matter how many times you have to double-check or triple-check it, whatever you do, for goodness sake make sure you spell your customer/potential customer’s name correctly.  

I  know of several people for whom if their name is spelt incorrectly (even if it’s the smallest typo) will bin whatever mailing they receive, no matter how compelling the product or service.  You may say they’re cutting their nose off to spite their face, but at the end of the day your cost per acquisition just went up!

All in all, it’s just about remembering what most of us were hopefully brought up to know, a little politeness goes a long way. 

Kerry Ritz is the managing director of VoIP company  Vonage UK