If you are emailed and other team members are included on CC, rule of thumb: always keep those team members copied (AKA always use “Reply All”). They were copied for a reason, so they likely need to know about your response, too – not just the sender.
Replying to all is the most efficient option when you have important information for the majority of the people included in the message thread. If your response would only affect a smaller number of recipients, then edit the list of contacts in the “To” field so that you are only communicating with those affected.
If someone is not meant to be a main recipient, use “Cc.” If you want a “To” recipient to know other important people are aware of the correspondence, use “Cc.” If you want to maintain an inclusive email chain, use either “To” or “Cc.”
Let's say someone was Bcc'd on an email and they hit reply all. Their response will be sent to the original sender, in addition to everyone in the To and Cc fields.
How to decide CC hierarchy? Email etiquette concerning CC hierarchy simply asks the question “who to place first in the CC field of an email”. Some professionals prefer to list recipients in descending order of importance in the company, placing the highest position first.
Reply only sends the new message to the original sender. Attachments are not included. Reply all sends the new message to the original sender and all other recipients on the To and Cc lines. Attachments are not included.
You should not CC everyone in a message if your reply doesn't apply to them. Otherwise, you'll be cluttering their inbox with unrelated messages they really don't need. You should also avoid including someone in CC who hasn't expressed a need to be included–or without stating in the email why you've looped them in.
Avoid CC and BCC
One final tip to greet multiple email recipients without sounding impersonal is to avoid using the CC and BCC fields unless necessary. CC stands for carbon copy, and BCC stands for blind carbon copy.
The CC abbreviation stands for “carbon copy.” CC recipients receive an exact copy of the email and any further “Reply All” responses in the thread. All recipients of the email will also see who has been CC'd. CC functions exactly like the “To” field.
Never use “Reply all” to disagree with or correct someone. That is between you and the sender, not the others on the email. It's a bit like pointing out that someone did something wrong in an in-person meeting. Doing so shames the other person in front of others.
To prevent reply to all emails, the person who initiates the first email can put in LARGE FONT, “Please reply only to me!” You can also bcc people on the initial email so the reply's don't go to everyone. It also takes only one person who asks people to stop replying to all, for the email chain to stop.
You can reply to a CC email in exactly the same way as you would a normal email, however, there are few things to remember. If you want to reply only to the original sender then you should click the standard “reply” button. If you want to reply to everyone on the list, then you should click the “reply all” button.
Typically, the "CC" (carbon copy) is to keep you in the loop of a conversation even if you're not directly addressed in the message. Whether or not you reply should be determined case by case. If your participation is relevant to the conversation, then a "reply all" might be in order.
When replying to an email there are usually two options: “Reply" or “Reply To All". If the “Reply” option is used then only the sender of the original email gets the reply. If “Reply To All" is selected then the original sender AND anyone listed in “CC" gets the reply.
The difference between the two is that, while you can see a list of recipients when CC is used, that's not the case with BCC. It's called blind carbon copy because the other recipients won't be able to see that someone else has been sent a copy of the email.
Always Reply All when other's are cc'd on an email thread. Unless you have a specific reason to exclude someone, its best to keep everyone in the loop. If someone was cc'd its usually for good reason. Taking people off a thread can cause confusion.
Why do some people always/automatically CC themselves on every email sent? Typically it's because they aren't familiar with the fact that they already have a copy via sent items. Some people also say they send themselves a copy to be reminded of some action related to the email.
Replying to the thread ensures that the person to whom the carbon copy was sent received it as well as the original recipients. Nothing is hidden from the- sender email, recipients email as well as other cc'd people are all visible to the cc'd people.
When you use reply all, there's a chance you're including people who no longer need to be included in the email chain, wasting their time with each new email. Sometimes someone on the chain has a side thought about the conversation.
Absolutely! If you CC recipients can see all the previous emails if you involve them in a pre-existing email thread. If you're happy they see old emails, keep them CCing them in.
Addresses that have been placed in the BCC field are not forwarded. If you have placed a large list of recipients in the To or CC field, all of them will receive the reply. By placing recipients in the BCC field, you can help protect them against receiving unnecessary replies from anyone using the Reply All feature.