This Website Might End Awkward Email Encounters for Good
First impressions are the most lasting, but even more so over email, where a totally awkward greeting or winking emoticon is guaranteed to be preserved for eternity in cyberspace. Fortunately, a company called Crystal Project has set out to help you avoid a potential cringe attack and perfect your digital communications. They’ve created Crystal, the world’s first empathetic email assistant. Crystal makes suggestions as you type to help you tailor your emails based on your recipient’s personality, ending email miscommunications for good.
Crystal is both a website and a Chrome browser extension that integrates with your existing Gmail interface. Once Crystal is installed, it works like a spell checker, translating your own words to better align with the communication style of your recipient. As you type, Crystal makes suggestions from how to greet the recipient to ideal punctuation and how to change your words, phrases, style and tone to suit your recipient’s preferences.
How does Crystal know your recipient’s personality? Crystal creates a unique personality profile for everyone who has an online presence. Unless your recipient has been living under a rock without a WiFi signal, chances are Crystal can find him or her from social media posts and Google sleuthing. After Crystal assesses a person’s natural communication style, it can guide you in crafting an email that matches it. Although Crystal offers an accuracy rating, it’s still up to you to assess how much confidence you place in Crystal’s recommendations.
Why bother with an email assistant like Crystal? Let’s face it: Most of the time, we’re in such a hurry to hit the “Send” button that we forget to personalize our emails. Crystal was created based on a philosophy of empathetic communication — that is, communicating with others based on how they actually want to be spoken to. A tailored email is less likely to be thrown straight into the trash and more likely to elicit a positive response, making emailing more productive.
While Crystal is perfect for emailing coworkers and acquaintances, it can even help you improve your relationships with people you’ve never met, like a potential business prospect or that long lost cousin with whom you think you have nothing in common. Whoever you’re emailing, Crystal is likely to make you a better listener and a more savvy communicator.
You can request an invite for Crystal on the website for a free two-week trial, or you can download the Chrome browser extension directly from the Chrome Web Store.
Could you use help with your emails from Crystal? Let us know in the comments below!