While sending an email from a portable device is not terribly hard, it doesn’t compare to the speed of all ten of my fingers on a full keyboard. Most emails I send from my phone are limited in my response or question. ‘KIS’ principle.

I even have a post scriptum tag line in my accounts on my phone to let people know that it is from my phone and most likely will be brief. Something along the lines of ‘This email was sent from my Palm OS mobile device.’

I feel it is courteous to the recipient to let them know this information and it helps to inform clients that I may not be at my desk at the time but I have received their request/comment and will react to it as quickly as possible.

Now, why we’re here. Using my handheld in no way allows me to be unprofessional. Growing up in a printing family has forever saddled me with a few things that I will never be able to shake. A big one is my disdain for typos. Can’t stand them. I hate when I see them and even more I hate when I create one. Now I understand that mistakes happen, fat fingers on small buttons make for a greater possibility, but I attempt to scan each one a time or two before sending.

Saying all of this, I was taken aback today when I received an email from a client confirming an appointment for a conference call this week. Enough so that not only did I do a double-take on it, I also took a screen shot, edited it down to remove the contact information, and spent 15 minutes typing about it.

Seriously? Is that professional? Is this the message you are saying to your clients?

“Don’t get mad, I am sending an email from my mobile device and it’ll probably have typos.”

I don’t get it. Again, mistakes happen. But asking for forgiveness for the sin before committing it isn’t really going to get the job done.

/exiting soap box