How to Create a Professional Email Signature Template
A professional email signature template might sound like a low priority in the grand scheme of things and really just some silly work minutiae, but having the proper information in your email signature can end up saving time.
While recently providing time management training for a company, I was in contact with many employees in order to interview them to gather information to create their custom training. What I noticed is that most employees did not have any type of email signature. When I opened up their email, I saw their one or two sentence reply, but there was no name on the bottom. Hmmmm….who was this from? I had to find the name in the “From” line and be reminded of who provided this information. This takes time. Multiply this time by everyone involved, and I easily spent more time looking for who the email was from and what department they were in than I would have spent creating a blog post.
You don’t want your clients or customers to feel this way. Any irritation they might feel – even over something seemingly insignificant like a missing email signature – might add to their frustration levels about situations you have no clue about, but they might take it out on you. It could be in the form of an irritable phone call or a snippy email response. Or it could be a delay in faxing information to you because they had to go look up that number since it wasn’t in your signature. Or maybe they’re having a really bad day, and your missing information is the straw that broke the camel’s back, and they take their anger out on you by writing a negative review.
So, what should your professional email signature template include?
First and Last Name
Position, Department
Company
Phone Number (include your direct line / extension)
Fax (if this is common in your line of work)
Website
Social Media (if this is a part of your job)
Link to a specific web page if you find that many people need the same type of information
Your professional email signature template would look something like this:
Helene Segura
Time Management Fixer, Customer Service Dept.
LivingOrder San Antonio
Ph 210-892-4990 | Fx 210-892-4990
Segura@emailaddress.com
Get info about services by clicking here.
Some email systems like Outlook give you the option of including your signature on emails that you create or your replies or both. Some people opt to not include an email signature on replies because it lengthens the email. I recommend that you do include your professional email signature template on any email that you send – whether it’s your creation or a reply – because you never know what information the other party might need in that moment that they receive your communication. Plus it just looks more professional to have at least your name rather than a big blank space.
To make sure that your professional email signature template functions properly, do a test run between your work email address and personal email account or team up with a co-worker and run this test with each other. You’ll be able to see what your signature looks like when you respond to someone.
