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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.

10 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 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. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 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.

  5. 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
  6. opening by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  7. 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!