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Ending Emails With Certain Variation Of Thank You Vastly Improves Response Rate, Study Finds (inc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the email-psychology dept.

An anonymous reader shares an Inc article: The folks at Boomerang, a plug-in for scheduling emails, did a little study to see how the language people use to close their emails has any effect on the response rate. "We looked at closings in over 350,000 email threads," data scientist Brendan Greenley wrote on the Boomerang blog, "And found that certain email closings deliver higher response rates." But do all emails need a response? Not necessarily. That's why Boomerang ran a variation of the test that looked at threads whose initial email contained a question mark, meaning the initiator of the conversation was likely looking for a reply. The answer? Those that express gratitude. "Emails that closed with a variation of thank you got significantly more responses than emails ending with other popular closings," Greenley writes. Here are the exact numbers: Emails that ended in Thanks in advance had a 65.7% response rate. Of emails that ended in Thanks, 63.0% got responses. The third most effective closing was Thank you with a 57.9% response rate. Boomerang has shared the kind of emails it accessed and how.

7 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Basic ettiquette pays I guess by bazmail · · Score: 5, Funny

    Except for people who end emails with "Thanks much". Fuck them.

    1. Re:Basic ettiquette pays I guess by hipp5 · · Score: 5, Funny

      But my one complaint is...people these days, rarely seem to respond to a "Thank you" with a "Your Welcome"

      That's because they're busy responding with a, "You're welcome."

      *ducks*

    2. Re: Basic ettiquette pays I guess by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny

      there is even several stores whose employees say "have a blessed day"

      What's the point of you Americans having a great gun culture if you aren't allowed to shoot people who say things like that?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. Always close emails politely. by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fuck off.

    Sincerely,
    nitehawk214

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  3. It's nice, up to a point by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Canada, politeness is said to cost us about 32% productivity for all those "Thank you" emails going back and forth. It's more of a game about who's going to stop replying first.

    Thank you very much for reading my comment.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  4. A specific variation has 80% response rate for me by raymorris · · Score: 5, Funny

    In my experience, a specific variation on "thank you" has an even higher response rate than any in the study. Faster responses, too.

    At least for business emails, there is a very high response rate if I say:

    Thanks, dickhead.

    Of course there is also a very high irate rate, but they sure do respond!

  5. Re:Ass Backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    can you elaborate on this?

    thanks in advance