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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.

29 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 cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Actually, this works in a MUCH broader sense.

      In just, common, every day interaction with people...saying "Thank You" and the like gets you SO far...and for some reason, basic politeness has gone to hell in the US.

      When I'm in a restaurant, I constantly say thank you, when the server brings me something or does something. Amazing how saying thank you and giving a smile seems to get you better service, and often at bars, MUCH better drinks. Tipping helps there too.

      But my one complaint is...people these days, rarely seem to respond to a "Thank you" with a "Your Welcome", it seems so much of the time is is the (what I think is lazy sounding or less polite". "No Problem".

      I'm not sure when that one took over.

      But really, its amazing what doors can open up to you, or what people will do for you..if you just catch their eyes, smile and say "Thank You"....hold a door open for someone....I tell ya, maybe its because basic manners and civility have disappeared so much in popular culture, its amazing how people react positively and light up when you yourself use basic manners, are friendly, civil, and actually thankful when someone does something nice.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re: Basic ettiquette pays I guess by TuballoyThunder · · Score: 2

      I also hear the variant "No worries." That one bugs me, though I'm not sure why--maybe it comes across a little passive-aggressive. Though, it could be that I'm just old.

    3. Re: Basic ettiquette pays I guess by CannonballHead · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't consider myself old (early 30s). I sometimes say "no problem" or "no worries" in response to a thank you ... but specifically, it's when I'm doing something to fix something that someone else did, or cover for them, that sort of thing. In other words, I'm trying to communicate that it wasn't a problem for me to help them out.

      As opposed to responding to thankfulness for something "nice" or "kind," which would get something along the lines of the traditional "you're welcome."

      Using the restaurant example, I wouldn't expect "no problem" to a "thank you" unless they were like, cleaning up something I spilled or something. If I said thank you for them bringing my food to the table and they said "no worries," that'd be a bit weird.

      So yeah, I view it as being some what more communicative. It's not just "you're welcome," it's "no problem, don't worry about it/feel bad, it wasn't a big deal." Which doesn't make sense in all contexts, but I think it does in some.

    4. 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*

    5. Re: Basic ettiquette pays I guess by Marquis231 · · Score: 2

      "no worries" is a standard reply in Australia to such courtesy, 'your welcome' would be considered rather stiff and formal by comparison.

    6. Re:Basic ettiquette pays I guess by Falos · · Score: 2

      >people these days, rarely seem to respond to a "Thank you" with a "Your Welcome" you're*
      Lots of them are the diluted variety that doesn't actually mean "Thank you", much like how there's a certain version of "How are you" that you're never supposed to genuinely answer, only acknowledge with the word Fine, making for an absolute waste of three seconds with absolutely meaningless babble - it's meant to be ritualistic, a gesture. And there's no hard way to distinguish it from a sincere query besides the mess of context, body language, intonation, etc that we lean on.

      Similarly, there's a hollow "thank you" in contemporary conduct that, functionally, is pretty identical to a "Good day." closing. Only even more meaningless.

      This shit is pretty verbose when we write it out, and you're just supposed to "get it" to participate in society. It's rough on people who can't. I've sometimes thought that there should be like, community classes or something for people who've been isolated or deployed overseas or homeschooled or whatever for decades, and need a crash course on all the little retarded carousels we're stuck inflicting on ourselves.

      http://www.smbc-comics.com/com...

    7. Re:Basic ettiquette pays I guess by PrimaryConsult · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "You're welcome" can come across as slightly arrogant. As in, "you are right to show gratitude for the generosity I have shown". Conversely, "no problem" and "no worries" can be interpreted as "no need to thank me, any reasonable person would have done the same" and conveys humility.

      I suspect I'm not the only one who feels some variant of this, whether it is conscious or not. probably due to people of the previous generations using "you're welcome" pointedly when people forget to say thank you.

    8. 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
    9. Re:Basic ettiquette pays I guess by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      But my one complaint is...people these days, rarely seem to respond to a "Thank you" with a "Your Welcome", it seems so much of the time is is the (what I think is lazy sounding or less polite". "No Problem".

      I'm not sure when that one took over.

      Could be part of the changing landscape of language or it could simply be multi-culturalsim. You will rarely get a "you're welcome" in Australia with usually some variation of "no worries" coming back. The key part is to understand that language has inherent cultural bias. What is said in one language may sound strange in another (even if it's a common language like English).

      One other variation that took me by surprise is in some European countries where the old formal variant of "if it pleases you" has resulted in their languages having the same word for both please and you're welcome. They then literally translate back to english and you get exchanges like:
      1 "I would like a receipt please!"
      2 "Here you go"
      1 "Thankyou."
      2 "Please"

    10. Re: Basic ettiquette pays I guess by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      You're overthinking it. Just take the Australian approach where EVERYTHING is "no worries mate".

  2. Ending with "thanks" is weird by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find emails that end with some variation of "thank you" are often badly worded and sound funny, like the person just set "thank you, Jo Bloggs" as their standard template and didn't really mean it when they apologized for not finishing the TPS report on time.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Ending with "thanks" is weird by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The strange thing about politeness is that it doesn't have to be sincere, or even perceived as sincere, to be effective. You don't really think that people receiving all those old timey "Your obedient servant," closings thought they were getting tenders of free labor, do you?

      I think rituals of politeness have the same kind of "signalling value" that Superbowl ads do. There's no obvious reason that a company buying a Superbowl ad should make anyone want to buy their product, but they work because the investment itself signals a kind of robustness for the brand. Likewise a polite valediction signals to the recipient that you regard him as someone who should be treated with respect -- or at least expects to be treated with respect.

      A lot of those rituals of politeness disappeared in the 60s, where it was cool and hip to be informal, and treat everybody like a friend. But I think we lost a kind of dynamic range in our culture, the ability to express degrees of respect or intimacy. It sets my teeth on edge when a vendor makes a cold call and asks to talk to "Matt," as if he was a buddy of mine. I am not your buddy, I am someone whom familiarity with is something you need to earn.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  3. Ass Backwards by fisted · · Score: 2

    Emails ending in 'thank you' and friends get more responses because they likely contain some explicit prompt for a reaction/action, otherwise i wouldn't be expressing my gratitude in the first place, duh.
    Fucking news at 11.

    --
    CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
    1. Re:Ass Backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      can you elaborate on this?

      thanks in advance

  4. Interesting by Dust038 · · Score: 2

    I saw from the original article that: Quote "" 1. We used an open-source library that allowed us to thread emails from lists that ranged from support emails for Pidgin (an instant messaging client) to UCLA’s Religion Law list. Many of the larger lists revolved around open source software and operating systems (e.g., Python, CentOS). We used Regular Expressions to extract closings from these emails, and were thus able to find how different closings correlated with response rate. End Quote. Anyone able to dig up just stats on support emails for Pidgin? I would hope that is 100% responses due to it being a support email. I can tell you within my support department, it doesn't matter what I end my email in; We have 100% response rate.

  5. Neckbeard Bigly by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Being blunt, rude, pushy, etc. fails far more often than it works in my experience, being somebody who by nature is "straight forward". The few times it has worked it usually creates a longer-term resentment; i.e. burning bridges.

    That's why a certain political figure has puzzled me. He's done the opposite of what both my parents and experience have taught in terms of getting along and cooperation. Yet, it got him far (so far).

    I don't get it. Maybe in some cases tribalism trumps manners (no pun intended).

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Neckbeard Bigly by Oligonicella · · Score: 3, Informative

      Context. Everyone, left and right, are getting sick to death of PC and Trump blatantly ignored it - mocked it. Being polite and civil never works in the middle of a fight and the PC crowd had stepped from annoying to confrontational to open conflict years ago. I sincerely hope the PC culture continues to implode like a domino spiral.

    2. Re:Neckbeard Bigly by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      PC appropriateness is relative. For example, if I called a Trump-voting evangelical a "sky-man-fairy-tale-worshiping nutcase" they will have a fit. That's my non-PC way of describing their religion.

      Those who dish it out often cannot take it themselves. Rather than have an escalating non-PC mouth fight, it's usually better to attempt PC.

      Non-PC is great for venting, lousy for civilized society. Say it in your closet to get it out of your system. So far it appears Trump's non-PC is backfiring on the larger scale. I'll be very surprised if it works in the longer run.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Neckbeard Bigly by mjwx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      PC appropriateness is relative. For example, if I called a Trump-voting evangelical a "sky-man-fairy-tale-worshiping nutcase" they will have a fit. That's my non-PC way of describing their religion.

      No, that'd just be you being an asshole.

      Nope, you're just demonstrating that the Anti-PC crowd are a bunch of whiny hypocrites.

      It seems you want the capability to complain about things you don't like whilst everyone else has to silently accept what you support... Which is ironically what the Anti-PC crowd complains about. The GP insulted your precious Trump whilst the GGP held up Trumps insults to others as a prime example of being Anti-PC.

      Also he was being very polite, my Scottish relatives describe Trump as a "Cheeto-faced buttplug".

      Calling someone or something PC has just become a way of saying "I don't like what he said but I cant form a rational argument against it". Ultimately, the Anti-PC crowd are the ones telling me what I'm not permitted to say. If you cant see a difference between PC and Anti-PC these days... you've got a good grasp on the situation.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  6. 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
  7. Correlation != Causation by gonz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's simpleminded to assume "Thank you" *caused* the result. People who say thank you probably write more politely in general throughout their communications.

    Unless the experiment controlled for this (e.g. by asking participants to add/remove "thank you" after having already composed their email), there is no implication that saying "thank you" will give you the same result.

    It might be a good idea, but this study doesn't demonstrate that in any scientific way.

    1. Re:Correlation != Causation by Desler · · Score: 2

      Reading is hard:

      After doing some sleuthing, we realized our findings actually reaffirm a 2010 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled “A Little Thanks Goes a Long Way.” In this Grant & Gino study, 69 college student participants got one of two emails asking for help with a cover letter. Half received an email that with a line that included “Thank you so much!” The other half got a similar email, sans an expression of gratitude. The study found that recipients were more than twice as likely to offer assistance when they received the email that included “thank you.”

    2. Re:Correlation != Causation by quenda · · Score: 5, Informative

      Reading is hard:

      Especially when the original link goes to a paywalled inc.com page with a click-bait headline "Ending Your Emails With This 1 Word ..." Fuck 'em.

      At the end of the summary now is a proper link to the original source, and it is clear they jumped to unscientific conclusions from their data.
      Only later, did they find an actual proper scientific study with experimental data, rather than just a correlation with other obvious contributing factors.
      e.g. people say thanks when a reply is more important. ie people already knew intuitively what the article is claiming to have discovered.

  8. 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
  9. opening by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I find near 100% results if I open with "Would you kindly..."

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  10. 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!

  11. You are probably getting paid though by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > Anyone able to dig up just stats on support emails for Pidgin? I would hope that is 100% responses due to it being a support email. I can tell you within my support department, it doesn't matter what I end my email in; We have 100% response rate.

    Based on my experience with corporate support email addresses, I'd venture to guess a typical "good" response rate is more like 90%-95%; emails get lost in all sorts of ways, before amd after they can make it to ticket system. Some get caught up in spam filters.

    Anyway, I suspect you get *paid* to reply to support emails. Nobody gets paid on the Pidgin list. Requesters are asking other users to do them a favor by helping them out. Given the typical quality of support questions, if *most* get an answer I'd call that pretty good. I'm not going to take time out of my day to reply to someone who sends:
    Subject: HELP! Urgent!
    Body: I need to Pidgin. My friend message. Email me dumbass@aol.com today plese!

  12. Thank's for the help I know you will give by T.E.D. · · Score: 2

    If it gets good results, I guess that explains why I occasionally get emails that end that way.

    In general, they annoy me. The implication is that I have no choice, I'm going to help them no matter what. Ugh.