Everyone likes a “thank you.” And sometimes we don’t take the time to pass along a sincere thank you to the people we interact with every day. Oh, we say “thanks” at the grocery store when we get our receipt. “Thanks” at the restaurant when someone refills our coffee cup or delivers the bill to the table. The sincerity of the “thanks” when someone hands us the bill for the meal is probably in question.

So it is nice to get a sincere thank you when none is really expected. I have toyed with the idea of sending out personal Thank You cards after sessions – and actually have some cards just for this purpose. Not many talent does this from what I can glean from various VO talent message boards. The trouble is, I am so busy just recording the jobs and creating the invoices that I simply forget!

And part of me wonders if the person opening the envelope will interpret the card as a sincere thank you – or simply as a marketing “trick.” Certainly the card has to be handwritten – or if not handwritten per se – using a service such as Send Out Cards – then with a truly unique reference to the specific project – something to indicate that it isn’t a mass mailing.

Now, I do like to receive a handwritten note, so perhaps the gesture will be taken as sincere. But the email thank you’s are great too! Just this week, I am basking in the glow of several really nice notes.

“Great job…thank you!”

“We appreciate you on SO many levels!”

“You just saved me. The next time I get to your neck of the woods… I’m buying the Starbucks.”

“Nice job. Love the voice and the read.”

“Thanks for knockin’ it out of the park again!”

“You Rock.”

“Wow that was fast! Thanks so much Connie!!!!”

And the thank you’s don’t even need to be written at all really. Case in point. I just finished an ISDN session with a client in Orange County and the first thing from the producer’s mouth was a thank you for the work I had done for them on the last project.

So – bottom line – a well-placed, sincere “thank you” is a wonderful thing. Now to just figure out what kind of “thank you” and the best way to deliver it when so much of what we do these days is through the electrons.