Thank You Notes Survey: Paper Notes Considered More Meaningful

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Posted Dec 29, 2014

Saying “thank you” for gifts and other nice gestures is important. Though traditions for doing so have changed, the general idea behind expressing gratitude hasn’t. Many people still appreciate getting hand-written thank you notes after sending a gift or attending an event. But others prefer to save paper and go the electronic route. So just how prominent are thank you notes today and in what forms?

thank you note

Thank You Notes

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 22% of respondents said they often send thank you notes, either by mail or electronically. 38% said they sometimes send thank you notes. 27% rarely send them. And 14% said they never do. In terms of occasions, 72% said they usually send thank you notes after receiving a gift of some kind. 54% said they send thank you notes to people who attend important events such as weddings or showers. 25% send thank you notes after interviews or other types of professional interactions. And 8% said they send them for other reasons, like when friends help them move or provide similar assistance.

Paper vs. Electronic

24% of those who send thank you notes said they always send paper thank you notes. 25% said they send paper thank you notes most of the time. 37% said they send both paper and electronic notes depending on the situation. 12% said they mostly send thank you's electronically. And just 2% said they only ever send electronic thank you notes.

Showing Gratitude

In general, 81% of respondents agree that sending thank you notes is an important way to show appreciation. And 80% said they appreciate receiving thank you notes from others. However, it seems that not all thank you notes are considered equal – 72% of respondents think that paper thank you notes are more meaningful than electronic ones.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: To Jane… from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on December 23 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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