When engaging with our residents and businesses, it’s important to consider the tone and structure. Ensure that what you write is easy to understand, clear and simple.
By letter or email
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and respond accordingly. Recognise their feelings (as they have expressed them), acknowledge how they see the situation and move forward
Make sure it contains the contact details and a date
When addressing someone by name, e.g. ‘Dear Karen’, sign off with ‘Yours sincerely’, when addressing someone by title or job, e.g. ‘Dear Chief Executive’, sign off with ‘Yours faithfully’
Address should be written as:
Mole Valley District Council
Pippbrook
Dorking
Surrey
RH4 1SJ
All emails/letters to be acknowledged within three working days and answered in full within 10 working days of receipt
Use Arial font at 12 text size
Do not use coloured text – stick with black
Use a clear layout, especially for headings, bullet points and/re numbering
Emails
If you’re out of the office, set an out of office
Use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) field in emails where consent has not been provided to disclose a recipient’s private email address.
Include a subject line
Read more about email signatures