Greetins and Salutations

Are you looking for business "etiquette" for email and for handwritten notes?

What are the "different types of business relationships" you're asking about?

John Hack

Eastbayrider,

Mark will probably have some great input on this. I use, "Sincerely" or "Your friend" with handwritten notes. If I have a personal relationship with a direct outside of the business context, I use, "Blessings".

For common emails I just put, -D or -Davis or let my email signature do the talking :)

-Davis

Eastbayrider,

For emails, or less formal notes, I tend to use the person's name as the salutation. To close I tend to use just my first name.

For something more formal I tend towards 'Dear NAME,' or 'Dear Mrs NAME' (substituting the appropriate title,of course) then sign off with something like "Yours Faithfully' or 'Yours Sincerely' followed by my full name.

For anything really formal (royalty, presidents &c) I have a book on secretarial procedures that has an entire section on the appropriate salutations and sign offs for different groups of people. Very useful, although it can be a bit incongruous writing to someone as "Lord Name of Place, My lord," when you actually know them as 'Dobbo'.

Something I've noticed of late, that I find quite irritating, is a tendency for people to sign off with 'KR' ('Kind Regards') or 'WKR' ('With Kind Regards'). I presume that this comes out of texting but it seems out of place in an email or letter.

Stephen

Hi Eastbayrider,

I would say that context matters just as much as format (ie. email, letter). Being genuine is key with me. I'll use 'Kind Regards' if I'm following up a good conversation with an email. I'll use 'Cheers' as kind of saying "I've answered your question, good luck with what you're doing - over and out". Whatever the greeting and/or salutation is, mean it.

Along the same lines, I find it equally humourous and disingenuous when people use the standard "Thank You" at the end of their emails... especially when it's completely obvious, like this:

Message message message. Body body body. Message message message. Body body body.Message message message. Body body body.Message message message. Body body body.Message message message. Body body body.Message message message. Body body body.

Thank You,
John Doe
Manager

Regards,
Kind regards,
With regards,
Best regards,
Best,
Thank you,

And in very special moments:
Cheers,

And don't forget the appropriate use of !

Thank you!