Have you ever felt unsure about how to word an email to your boss? Or to a prospective client? Simple things like word choice and punctuation can affect how your email is perceived. That’s a lot of pressure! We found just the thing to ease your worries; the name is Crystal.
As much as we’d like it to be, Crystal isn’t actually a human being, but it sure is good at figuring them out. Crystal is a tool that helps you understand how to talk to specific people based on their preferences and personality traits.
To get started, simply select the topic of your conversation (for example, “following up with an interview,” or “respond to a sales inquiry”). Crystal will collect public data from the web and run it through “proprietary personality detection technology.” Once Crystal is done, you get a report detailing that person’s preferred style of communicating. Then you can draft an email written in a style preferred by the recipient.
How Does It Work?
If someone were to look up your name, Crystal would begin by examining things you’ve written publicly — mainly using social media profiles — and analyzing factors such as writing style and sentence structure. It also takes into account what others have written about you. Using these data points, Crystal identifies you as one of 64 communicative types. Basically, Crystal only knows what you’re like, it doesn’t know you.
Crystal also removes some of the ambiguity that can cause confusion in emails. The “Be Brief” button offers more detailed suggestions on the best ways to communicate with the recipient, including specific phrases to use or avoid depending on the scenario. Crystal even puts in the extra work and offers a fully-written email template, algorithmically derived specifically for the recipient.
Co-founder Drew D’Agostino says he built Crystal because he wanted technology to aid in enhancing his emotional intelligence. Crystal is a great example of how technology is changing our culture every day and just might revolutionize the way we communicate with each other in the workplace.
