How Team Members Should Communicate on Basecamp and Email

Communication is the difference between success and failure as a team.

When team members or VAs don’t know how to communicate, this wastes hours of our time we could use on higher leverage tasks and fixing issues.

One of the most important parts of managing your communication is your response to work assigned to you. This is a major bottleneck which slows everything down, since we value things getting done more than messages getting answered immediately.

For example, every time you hit send on a shared project, everyone receives an email. So while I’m managing over 1,000 emails a day, countless of these are responses to work already assigned out. Most of these responses include the following:

• “Okay”
• “Understood”
• “Let me check”
• “Sure”
• “Thanks, checking it”
• “Will respond after seeing it”

When a task is assigned or changes are requested, the instinctive response for many is to immediately acknowledge the message with quick replies such as “Okay,” “Understood,” “Let me check,” “Sure,” or “Thanks, checking it.” While these responses may seem polite and reassuring, they often add little value and can, in fact, be counterproductive.

These quick acknowledgments may only take a moment to send, but they generate unnecessary email traffic. Each time you send a message, it triggers a notification for the recipient, which can interrupt their focus and workflow. Over time, these interruptions can accumulate, leading to a less efficient work environment.

We value quality over quantity.

Your response doesn’t need to be instant. We understand that it takes a few minutes to digest the task at hand, review the thread history, and formulate a plan of action. We do not expect you to respond within seconds. What we value more is a well-thought-out, comprehensive reply that addresses the task or query in full.

Rather than sending multiple short messages, take a moment to think through the task. Gather all your questions, concerns, or updates, and compile them into a single, concise message. This approach not only reduces unnecessary email traffic but also ensures that your communication is clear and complete.

Consider this scenario: A project manager sends a request for a minor change in a document. Within minutes, the team member responds with “Okay,” and a few minutes later with “Let me check.” Shortly after, another message follows: “I see the issue. I’ll update it now.”

Each of these messages might seem harmless on its own, but when viewed collectively, they create a fragmented communication trail. Each message triggers a notification, pulling the project manager’s attention away from other tasks. Instead of focusing on higher-level strategic work, the manager now spends time monitoring the progress of a small task, which could have been summarized in a single, well-considered reply.

Aim for inbox 0.

Everyday you should be aiming for an empty inbox. You do this by following DDD, (do, delegate, delete) as shown in our level 1 VA training. This isn’t just for email but for Basecamp, Facebook, and any other platform where you’re communicating within the business.

The reason why this is so important is because we have clients and team members everywhere. Without personal efficiency with your communication, this makes this unnecessarily challenging even for simple tasks which take 5 minutes to complete.

Fortunately, fixing this is easy. We recommend installing plugins like Boomerang to return email messages at a certain date for projects which may take a while. For example, if you’re a website developer and know adding local service pages may take 2 days, boomerang messages out to that time so you can focus on getting things done and responding only when the task is complete.

You should avoid dot replies.

Dot replies are reminders of an email or basecamp thread which aren’t being answered. Every time you see this in your inbox, it means we want communication and iteration. Chances are, if you see this in your inbox it means that tasks aren’t being completed and your iteration is required.

We’ve heard every excuse on why this happens. Your internet goes down, or your mother get’s sick, or a typhoon kills your power for a few days. What you do in these situations separates the A players from everyone else. If you know you’ll be unavailable for a few days, it’s important to communicate with our team so we can delegate out your projects in advance.

Many VAs and team members have disappeared for a week, only to blame their absence on something outside of their control. As we’re building a team of A players, sudden long absences without communication will result in immediate termination from working with us.

Check your grammar before sending messages.

Whether you’re from Pakistan, the Philippines, or even the USA – watch your English before sending messages to our team and clients. Even if unintentional, this makes us look unprofessional and throws into doubt our ability to get things done for our clients.

You should eliminate any improper slang when communicating. For example, “ur”, “idk”, etc. You should also follow basic English word structures and start sentences with a capital letter and end them with a period or question mark.

If a client who’s paying us thousands of dollars a month sees we can’t spell – how can he trust us to solve issues for his website or ads accounts? This results in less money for the agency, which in turn, means less money for us all.

You should be studying our level 1 VA training if you’re unsure on any of these.

We only want A players on our team. What that means is proving you can communicate well within a team and add more value than you take away. Oftentimes, QAing your blog posts and text actually costs us more money and time than simply doing it ourselves, which serves no one and wastes countless hours.

This is also why studying and completing our level 1 VA course is a requirement for all new VAs who want to join our team.