Practice Management

Redux: Emailed "thank-you" notes are low and tacky; if you mean it, handwrite it.

By Dan Hull

A good thank-you--a real thank-you--means something. It is notable, memorable, important.--Tom Chiarella, A Little Gratitude, Esquire Magazine, April 2007

In case your mother never told you, you're from the boonies, or you were stoned all five years at Andover, let us remind you to never thank anyone for something truly important--a meeting, referral or a dinner--with anything but a prompt handwritten thank you note.

Good stationery. We suggest Crane's or something better. And no excuses for not doing it; many, many business people and some lawyers with taste think that no written (typed is okay--but handwritten is better) thank you note means no class, as harsh and low-tech as that may sound. Even if you are not convinced that thank you notes are noticed and appreciated (they are), pretend that WAC? knows more than you and do it anyway.

However, "electronic thank-yous" by e-mails or in comments for links or mentions in posts or articles on the Internet--let's say 3 different people link to your blog every day and you are working full time--are okay. And you'll always miss a few who mention you in cyberspace.

Inspiration, 1769, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

But if you don't regularly thank people at all for links to or mentions of you, your blog or website, you are fouling your own nest. Not thanking people in the blogosphere is not just low and tacky but (1) arrogant and (2) dumb. And adds to the notion that (3) bloggers are insular, passive-aggressive weenies and geeks lacking in people skills.

So get some habits about thank-yous, and make handwritten the default position. If you don't, bad things will happen. No one will give you any more business, or invite you to New Canaan or Aldeburgh for the weekend. People will say mean things about your dog.

If you went to Brown, snide people will remind you that Brown used to be the safety school for the Ivies.

If you were at Duke, they'll re-float the completely untrue story that Duke exists only because Princeton had too much honor and class to accept Buck Duke's filthy tobacco money and re-name Princeton Duke.

If Princeton, they'll just say you were always kind of light in the Cole Haans, too, so what can you expect.

You see what can happen?

So thank people in writing. Handwritten as a general rule. Do it by e-mail only for a cyber-mention.

Finally, if your site is so successful that your links, e-mails and comments are through the roof, hire someone else to do the thank yous--written or electronic--for you.

Full post as published by What About Clients? on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).