“You’re ending your emails wrong,” wrote Rebecca Greenfield in Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Rant.” She doesn’t like using “best” or any version of it, like “Best regards,” or “Warmest regards.”
Greenfield traced the literary family tree of valedictions (the action of saying farewell). She’s right, it isn’t very compelling.
She doesn’t like “thanks” because it’s frequently not true. She doesn’t like “cheers,”—it’s too British (unless you are British). She doesn’t like “yours truly” or “sincerely” either. She favors – nothing. No name, no signoff, just stop and hit send.
Just nothing? We admit that we’ve struggled with how to close an email. My friend David Barton uses “blessings,” which makes sense for him since he really means it, and it’s genuine. Other friends like “thinking of you,” which we like for some occasions.
I’ve used “can’t wait to see you” for clients we haven’t seen or worked with for some time. I also use “many thanks” often because our business is frequently generated by referrals. I have a lot of people to thank and thank a lot.
I also like Larry Senn’s “mood elevator,” which includes “Stay Curious” and “Assume positive intent.” (And, for the record, many of my colleagues do still prefer “Best” because they genuinely do mean it.)
What do you dislike? Like? Use most frequently?
You May Also Like
In an almost unprecedented move, actor Johnny Depp and his wife, model Amber Heard, issued a video apology to the government of Australia after failing to declare their dogs “Pistol” and “Boo” to the Australian Customs Service. The… more
Tuesday night’s debate was interesting in many respects, but the closing statements offered one important lesson for everyone in today’s non-reading world (people listen and watch –but they don’t read)! In the closing statements, most of the candidates… more
Examples galore! This edition of the BIMBO Memo features one of the largest compilations of examples to date. In the Memo, you’ll find BIMBOs from former Governor of South Carolina and outgoing Congressman Mark Sanford, Johnson & Johnson,… more
