<\/p>\n

I was raised in a house where we wrote thank you notes for every present we received. Even when the gift giver was there to thank in person, we still had to write a note. To emphasize the importance of this social grace, we were not allowed to play with the toy, or use\/ wear the item until the note was written. Now that is incentive!<\/p>\n

Flash forward to today and I still write thank you notes for gifts. In business, I write thank yous for such things as introductions, advice, referrals and when treated to a meal. Though I admit at times I “cheat” and send an email rather than a handwritten note. Unfortunately, I would say more often than not, I don’t get the same from others. So, imagine my surprise and delight when I recently received two separate handwritten thank you notes from organizers of different speaking engagements I participated in.<\/p>\n

Should you always send a note? The Emily Post Institute says, “It’s never wrong to send a written thank you, and people always appreciate getting a ‘thanks’ in writing.”<\/em> I agree with this advice. When I talk with groups or coach individuals on sales, networking or interviewing, I always emphasize that they will stand out if they send a handwritten note. You can be sure that the two individuals who sent notes to me stand out in my mind.<\/p>\n

So why don’t we always send one? The first excuse I hear is we are busy. My response to that is to at least send a quick email thanks if nothing else. Another excuse is that because we do so much electronic communication, we don’t always have a physical address. That’s easily solved, just ask! Reach out and ask the person for their address. That is what the two clients I mentioned above did. They confirmed my address and a week later, the notes arrived.<\/p>\n

Receiving these notes has encouraged me to believe that the practice of the thank you is still alive and well. It also has me ordering new thank you<\/em> cards so that I can get back in the practice of sending handwritten notes.<\/p>\n[\/spb_text_block]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom=”no” pb_border_bottom=”no” width=”1\/1″ el_position=”first last”] I am a big believer in the power of writing a personal thank you note.\u00a0 As a business owner, I often send hand-written notes to clients or to those who have passed on a referral.\u00a0 Without fail, all of them mention how much they enjoyed receiving the note. \u00a0As a Professor at Loyola University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-tips"],"yoast_head":"\n