Written communication with clients. Opening and closing.

[ukpartydj]

Not exactly the most exciting thing to talk about!
I'm wondering if I should be adjusting my opening and closing words to suit the client I'm dealing with.

Currently on first email contact its "Dear Client... Thanks, David" followed by "Hi Client" in future correspondence.
A lot of my clients that work in office jobs / are corporate say "kind regards" and I was never all that great at English so I'm wondering if I should be changing my "style" to fit in and make them more comfortable .. Or am I just a loon looking at the details too much?

[musicology]

I always use Hello Client regardless of how many times. Closing I judge by tone of our conversation, first time is alway Kind Regards, after that could be just Regards or Thanks, Cheers etc.

[Excalibur]

I fully expect to be in a minority of one here, but I abhor " Hi". :mad:
Default setting for me is Hello to start, and Regards to finish. It varies sometimes, but not much, and not often.

Please feel free to regard my views as outdated, and old hat. They're my views though, and I'm in no hurry to change them.

[Benny Smyth]

Either 'Hi' or 'Hello' to start with.

Initial email usually ends with 'All the best'.

To be honest, after about two or three emails, I don't even put my name at the bottom. I just put 'B'.

[funkymook]

Not exactly the most exciting thing to talk about!
I'm wondering if I should be adjusting my opening and closing words to suit the client I'm dealing with.

Currently on first email contact its "Dear Client... Thanks, David" followed by "Hi Client" in future correspondence.
A lot of my clients that work in office jobs / are corporate say "kind regards" and I was never all that great at English so I'm wondering if I should be changing my "style" to fit in and make them more comfortable .. Or am I just a loon looking at the details too much?

I think you have to be led by the style and content of the main communication and also the clients own style of writing.

But if you’re not confident that you can gauge that correctly then you can’t go wrong with starting with ‘Dear.....’ or Hello.....’ and ending with ‘Kind regards’.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Usually Dear if used the enquiry form or hello if they've written a personal email. I always use kind regards unless it's a regular client.

[ukpartydj]

Seems like the majority of opinion is "hello" followed by "regards" altough "all the best" does have a good friendly ring to it.

[rth_discos]

I never use hello - always "hi name"

Dear feels too formal.

People are becoming much less formal - even an MD I know of a very large corporation now wears jeans and shirt to work, as it's company policy to dress less formally.

[Excalibur]

People are becoming much less formal -
Disgraceful! :mad: Wouldn't have been tolerated in my day. The Memsahib and I always wear full evening dress for dinner, even if it's only beans on toast. :(
There are standards, you know.


Perhaps I ought to have a lie down, and a couple of my tablets, eh? :whistle:

[DazzyD]

My day job is in the local authority and we write lots of letters. Our letters have to give legal information and appeal rights which are set in stone as to how they have to be worded. A lote of people would think our letters are quite stuffy and, at times, quite pendantic and matter-of-fact, but that's the way we've done them "since, like, forever!". But we've been having communications and letter writing training over the last couple of years because they want us to move away from this and communicate in a less formal manner. We send a lot more emails nowadays and, me personally, I find it much easier to ask for the information I need over the phone so I make a lot of calls.

The point I'm getting to is that, in the world today, things are getting more informal. Language is much more informal even in a traditionally very-formal scenario like my job. Dumbing down of the English language? Perhaps. Or maybe it's just evolution. Everything, including language, is constantly changing.

[ukpartydj]

I never use hello - always "hi name"

Dear feels too formal.

People are becoming much less formal - even an MD I know of a very large corporation now wears jeans and shirt to work, as it's company policy to dress less formally.

My girlfriend works for a big loans company and it makes me a little uncomfortable with how informal they all are, I've yet to look around the offices (I've been invited to) but from what everyone says it's more like going to sixth form! They've even got motorised scooters to get from one end of the open plan offices to the other. And I've heard the MD wheres a hoody half the time haha...


Also - who ever thought of joined up handwriting? It just makes it harder to understand! Now I understand why shorthand is useful but joined up is just a mess!

[DazzyD]

My girlfriend works for a big loans company and it makes me a little uncomfortable with how informal they all are, I've yet to look around the offices (I've been invited to) but from what everyone says it's more like going to sixth form! They've even got motorised scooters to get from one end of the open plan offices to the other. And I've heard the MD wheres a hoody half the time haha...


Also - who ever thought of joined up handwriting? It just makes it harder to understand! Now I understand why shorthand is useful but joined up is just a mess!

I remember watching a programme where the head of Innocent Drinks had football turf laid in his office!

[Excalibur]

I remember watching a programme where the head of Innocent Drinks had football turf laid in his office!

It's a fine line between eccentricity and insanity. ;)

[funktions]

we try to be a mixture of formal and more natural, tend to start more formally but as you communicate you seem to be able to read how the client converses and can adjust to how they are.

[Excalibur]

we try to be a mixture of formal and more natural, tend to start more formally but as you communicate you seem to be able to read how the client converses and can adjust to how they are.

Not a million miles from my practice.