The problem with email is the bland way that it conveys your messages without actually conveying the smirk on your face as you write it, the cheeky little twinkle in your eye or the sarcasm you would have said it with. As a result, alot can be misread and some can take offence when nothing could have been further from the truth.
I guess that is why in much online writing and message boards many use the kind of annotation symbols I used to find rather annoying but have now embraced with glee, you know the ones; lol, 😉
:-0)* (no idea on the last one, but you get the idea).
Anyway, the point is that because much of what I write, certainly in the banter with colleagues over company issues, is tongue in cheek, I think I am going to have to go further and start annotating my expressions after almost every line. Maybe I should do that with all my writing so people understand the tone in which I am addressing them.
In fact maybe all people in business should do that, and it could be very useful in our own industry. I would love to see new rate release emails from lenders with a bit of honest annotation, as well as some media releases.
Go on, try it 😉
I know you may well be asking what is mortgage related about that, but not everything in this blog needs to be about that does it (genuinely furrowed brow)? I often think my best blogs are when someone says to me, “what the hell were you on yesterday?” (self-obsessed smirk as if anyone actually reads this).
But, talk about mortgages I shall (stifling yawn), after all that is ostensibly what I do!
There does seem to be a bit more get-up-and-go about the market at the moment with a plethora of new product releases, some of which fly in the face of recent SWAP rate increases, especially on a fixed rate basis. Lenders do seem to be a bit more relaxed about the future and are starting to concentrate on the core business of actually lending money again, (about bloody time to).
Whilst there is an undoubted return of a semblance of competition to the market, I still feel it is highly likely that the fixed products available in the first part of the year will be better than those available in the latter.
It was also a little bit sad to see the Abbey and Bradford & Bingley brands disappear into the ether of the past and it is a shame to lose something so quintessentially British , certainly where B&B were concerned. However, Santander is a strong brand with a good reputation and I like what they have been doing, (slight crawl).
Anyway that’s progress folks, something we badly need and I am all for that.
QXRSUDQZ6FTK for all those wondering this is my Technorati claim reference I have to post into a blog – I don’t really know why either 🙂