Save the trees! And my scrolling finger…

So, I’d been wanting to adjust the company email signatures for a while, it just never made it high enough up my ‘to do’ list - then it did and in 10 steps we saved paper, time and made a better experience for anyone reading our emails… (I guess that also depends on the content and which one of us sent it though!).

• Step 1 – move job high enough on ‘to do’ list
• Step 2 – find a free designer and give them a tight brief to work to
• Step 3 – get approval on a cut down signature layout from relevant people
• Step 4 – create 1 signature and add to email system
• Step 5 – when ‘playing’ with said system see that the new version offered even more freedom
• Step 6 – fiddle with global signature settings and formatting
• Step 7 – adjust global sign off to be smaller and more concise in message 
• Step 8 - add individual signatures to clients
• Step 9 - adjust individual email client signature settings to ‘remove reply with signature’ and remove ‘add signature to internal emails’.
• Step 10 – test and rollout to company

So in theory we’ve gone from:-

A large email signature taking up lots of space and present on all emails both new and reply.

To a reduced signature footprint but carrying the same messages in a clear and concise way.

To a simple reply in an ongoing conversation with no email signature.

It’s amazing what can happen when you take a small job, realise you can make much bigger improvements for a little more time, and give an all round better experience.

Now, many people will likely find this a pretty boring read on email signatures, so if you made it this far then well done! Here’s the message behind the blog. When you read between the lines this is really what happened, the project context doesn’t matter.

We had an issue, we found a solution, along the way we found multiple ways to enhance that solution without impacting on cost or deadlines, and we then delivered a much better product than originally envisaged. Under promise, over deliver, not the the other way round.

In reality this statement is at the crux of what we like to do for our clients every day, it just so happened that this day it was ourselves we delighted! Next time it could be you.

All images found on Google. No offense or copyright infringement intended. Images can be removed if requested by originator.