Posted on 2015-10-14 00:00:00 +0000

We live in a time of increasing busyness, with communication tools that lead us to desire instant gratification. We perceive it to be bad form if it takes someone twenty fours to respond to an email. A text seemingly needs a reply within hours, if not minutes. People are easily aggrieved by these perceived slights, which arise from the societal expectation of timeliness. Given these imposed pressures, it’s still amazing how many businesses fail to complete a transaction without saying two of the most powerful words to be found in building relationships. Of course, I refer to the phrase, “Thank You.”

Companies spend countless hours and dollars examining their sales cycle, working hard to understand how they develop new clients and how long it takes to close business. And yet, many still forget to thank their clients for their business. It doesn’t take that long to send a thank you card. The handwritten thank you note creates a huge impact for the recipient. Some companies use technology to assist with their customer appreciation campaigns, taking advantage of internal year round e card sites where they can send a “Thank You” e card within minutes. Thanking a client is a relatively small investment in terms of both time and money at the back end of a deal but creates huge ROI moving forward. The client who gets thanked properly becomes a loyal client and that much more likely to refer your company to his network.

No matter which way you choose to express your gratitude, you can’t make a bad choice. We’ve heard the expression “it’s the thought that counts” many times, but taking the right action counts more. Taking the time to say “Thank You” is always a good choice.