The Power of a Handwritten Thank-you Note

It all started with a brush tipped reed and a mixture of soot, water and vegetable gum and thanks to the Egyptians, around 2400BC, the ability to write on paper.

From pictographs to the modern day sticky notes, to a multitude of technological advance in communications right at our fingertips, will handwritten notes live on?

Think about this scenario, you have 75 emails in your in-box and two handwritten notes on your desk. Which one do you think stands out the most? If you answered the “handwritten note,” give yourself kudos!

We can’t argue that laptops, tablets, and smart phones enable us to communicate instantly. But a study conducted by Forrester Research shows that 87% of business professionals still use handwritten notes in addition to digital media. The study also found: 37% of all workers use handwritten notes to organize their priorities through to-do lists (myself being one of these people).

Handwritten notes are a pain, and they do take more time than their digital counterpart, but they matter. As a kid, I couldn’t understand the meaning and impact of sending a thank-you note for every birthday and holiday gift.

As a full-fledged adult, married, older, (hopefully) wiser, and definitely busier, I realize now more than ever how important it is to keep the lost art of sending handwritten thank-you notes alive.

Any business today is considered to be in the ‘relationship’ business. You build relationships with the people you meet and the people you do business with everyday. And to reinforce these relationships and truly thank someone for their time, whether for a referral or a taking the time to meet with you, nothing comes close to a handwritten thank-you note.

An email thank-you will most likely get deleted, a Tweeted thank-you could be seen as self-promotion, but a truly authentic way to thank someone, in my opinion, is with a handwritten note. Why? Because the pen is mightier than the mouse, and it shows your clients common courtesy and respect that you appreciate and value the time they spent to patronize your company.

It’s amazing how people react to a handwritten thank-you, as I did when I received this thank you from PrintFirm.com after I sent them a little “print care-package.” I was completely blown away when PrintFirm took the time to draw this wonderful thank-you, and on our own note pad of course!

So slow down and take a few minutes to make somebody’s day by sending him or her a thank-you note. It’s not difficult or complicated but the impact is powerful.