Your mother was right.
A few days ago I received a small white envelope—the kind that usually contains formal invitations and greeting cards—in
the mail. I didn’t recognize the name in the return address.
It turned out to be a thank-you card from a young woman who recently sold me a shirt at Nordstrom. I’m talking about a sale item that couldn’t have brought her much in the way of a commission.
“I just wanted to thank you for shopping with me recently,” she wrote, adding some details about my purchase and ending with, “I hope to see you again soon.”
Nordstrom has a reputation for personal service, but this is the first time I received a written thank-you note from any salesperson there—or from any store.
What a wonderful way to market your services! Receiving the note gave me a warm, positive feeling toward the store, and particularly toward this salesperson, who had enclosed her card with the note.
These days we are so used to dashing off emails that we often overlook the value of a simple old-fashioned written note.
Susan RoAne, who calls herself The Mingling Maven®, has written on this topic.
“To email or not? Handwritten notes are quickly becoming a lost art, and some people complain that it takes too much time to write thank you notes by hand,” she says. “But most ‘manners mavens’ agree that the handwritten note is more valued. It reflects personal care, thought, and time expended. An email can be sent as a quick acknowledgement, followed by the handwritten note or card. After a job interview, to stand out from the other applicant, add what you learned from the interview or add some relevant commentary you have read or heard to a thank-you note. When we take the time to personalize our notes we distinguish ourselves from the crowd and become memorable.”
Read more on her website at www.susanroane.com.
A written thank-you note makes you stand out from the crowd. If your mother was like mine, she always told you to write your thank-you notes—and she was right.