“When I get an e-mail signed BEST I usually think it means the opposite – like feck off”
Apparently we can learn a lot from how you sign off your emails. Have a look at this and see what you think.
What is your email sign off?
This from the Blog Bobulate.
“Forget what you’ve heard about first impressions; it’s the last impressions that count. Last impressions — whether they’re with customer service, an online shopping experience, or a blind date — are the ones we remember. They’re the ones that keep us coming back.
The closing line of email — that line that you write before you type your name — has been all but forgotten. Go take a look at your inbox: you might be astonished at how little attention people pay to the closing lines when writing email. This underrated rhetorical device is so frequently disregarded that many people have the gall to use an automatic closing line attached to their email signature file.
Closing lines vary from the highly self-conscious (“My warmest regards,”) to the impersonal and charmless (“Best,”).
Closing lines, at least in my inbox, revealed the following:
Tnx
Best
Word
Later
Laters
Thanks
Cheers
Cheery
Take care
Feel better
All the best
Safe travels
Love you all
Super great
Best regards
Get well soon
With gratitude
Thanks family
Your weary friend
Thanks in advance
Thanks, all the best
Don’t work too hard
Hope to see you Thursday
Hope to hear from you soon
Warm regards right back at ya
It seems that there are patterns in the type of closing lines I receive. If ordered another way, they look like this:
Ordered By Intention
Expressing gratitude
Tnx
Thanks
Thanks family
Thanks in advance
Thanks, all the best
Expressing general sentiment
Best
All the best
Best regards
Word
Later
Laters
Cheers
Cheery
Super great
Expressing affection
Love
Love you
Love you all
Expressing state
Your weary friend
With gratitude
Imperatives
Feel better
Take care
Safe travels
Get well soon
Don’t work too hard
Wishes
Hope to see you Thursday
Hope to hear from you soon!
Warm regards right back at ya
With all of these, the intensity and, dare I say, sincerity varies depending on punctuation. A warm “Thanks!” has quite a different sentiment than a flat “Thanks,”.
I must point out that there is most definitely a correlation between intimacy and length. The better you know someone, the shorter the closing lines tend to me. My closest friends sign their emails with a single letter (“-k”) or no closer at all — the ultimate signifier of a friendship. But those are the exception. Those are for unique cases. Not carefully considering a closing for other kinds of relationships is as thoughtless as hanging up without a goodbye.
If a closing line can be so meaningful, so important, why are emailers squandering the opportunity, putting no thought in the closing? Time, perhaps, iPhone-finger exhaustion, multi-tasking—they’re all possible excuses. And many times, acceptable ones. We can’t be expected to neatly tie up every email every time. But once in a while, it would be delightful if people applied the same sincerity to the last impressions that we do to first ones.”
Painting, Oil on canvas