The importance of Email responses
No matter how busy you are, there are people who reply to emails incredibly quickly. Those people are considered smart business workers in Japan, and maybe in most countries.
By responding to emails quickly, you can demonstrate respect to the recipient. Furthermore, people who respond to emails promptly are perceived as individuals who do not procrastinate and are diligent in their work.
Those who neglect to reply to even a single email are seen as individuals who do not meet work deadlines, are careless, and do not show respect to others.
However, sometimes we get so caught up in responding to emails that work doesn’t move forward. To reply to emails efficiently, it’s important to prepare by adding commonly used words to Text Substitutions. Let’s break down useful and basic Japanese language.
Useful Japanese language in email
いつもお世話になっております。
“いつもお世話になっております。(Itsumo osewani natteorimasu)” means “I always appreciate your help.” We Japanese usually use that phrase at the beginning of the message. There are several other expressions like “平素よりお世話になっております。 (Heisoyori osewani natteorimasu),” but the simplest and most common one is “いつもお世話になっております。” It is not too polite and rude, so appropriate for all the situation.
ご返信が遅くなりまして、失礼いたしました。
The phrase “ご返信が遅くなりまして、失礼いたしました。(Gohenshin ga osoku nari mashite shiturei itashi mashita)” translates to “Apologies for the delayed response.” This phrase is useful when you are busy and it took more than four hours to respond to an email. It conveys your strong sense of responsibility and loyalty to the customers.
先ほどは、お電話にてご対応いただきまして、ありがとうございました。
When writing a message after talking to the client on the phone, it is common to start with a polite and grateful statement. By saying “先ほどは、お電話にてご対応いただきまして、ありがとうございました。(sakuhodo wa odenwa nite gotaiou itadaki mashite arigatou gozaimashita)” you convey your kind and humble personality while expressing gratitude for their assistance over the phone earlier.
早々にご対応いただきまして、ありがとうございました。
When the client promptly responds to something you requested, you can express your gratitude by saying “早々にご対応いただきまして、ありがとうございました。(sousou ni gotaiou itadaki mashite atigatou gozaimashita)” This translates to “Thank you very much for your prompt response.”
どうぞ、ご確認くださいますようお願いいたします。
We use the phrase “どうぞ、ご確認くださいますようお願いいたします (douzo gokakunin kudasai masuyou onegai itashimasu)” when we attach materials to an email or when there is something we want to confirm with the client. It means “Please kindly confirm.”
どうぞ引き続き、よろしくお願いいたします。
The phrase “どうぞ引き続き、よろしくお願いいたします。(douzo hikituzuki yoroshiku onegai itashimasu)” means “Please continue to support us. Thank you,” and is commonly used at the end of an email.
In cases where the relationship is temporary, we can remove “引き続き(continue)” and say “どうぞ、よろしくお願い申し上げます。”
To efficiently, register in the Text Substitutions (for Mac)
No matter how diligently and quickly we want to respond to emails, it is time-consuming and burdensome to handle a tremendous number of emails.
I recommend registering all the useful phrases in Text Substitutions. For example, when you register “いつも” as “いつもお世話になっております。,” just by typing “いつも”, the option “いつもお世話になっております。” will appear in the choices for character conversion.
Typing long sentences one by one can be tiring, so this feature has made replying to emails much easier for me.
