The most annoying phrases you can use in an email, ranked
Its 2020, so we should all know how to email, right?
But with so many of us heavily using email for work, there are bound to be some things that pop into our inboxes and annoy us.
To find out the ultimate email DOs & DONTs and which cliches fill us with rage, Perkbox Insights conducted a survey of 1,928 people.
Key findings include:
- According to the working public, the perfect work email starts with Hi and ends in Kind Regards.
- Just looping in and As per my last email are rated the most annoying email cliches.
- The worst work email sign-offs are love, warmly, cheers and best.
- 'Hey', 'Happy Friday' and 'To whomit may concern' are the worst ways to start an email.
- Using capital letters, kisses and emojis are the biggest email DONTs.
- A huge 16% think that its never acceptable to use an exclamation mark in a work email, while 48% say that you can use just one.
It might be 2020 but email isnt dead 73% say email is their preferred method of communication at work
Although other methods may seem like they are ever on the rise good old email is still the most popular method of communication for work. Almost ¾ of people say that this is their preferred method, with face-to-face coming in second place with 50%.
Phone is the third most popular platform, with a third of people stating that this is their preferred method and surprisingly, just 16% say instant messaging.
And only 8% think text is fit for work purposes, along with the 3% who use social media for work.
Most adults spend between 1 and 2 hours a day checking emails
1 in 5 spend between 1 and 2 hours of their workday in their inbox, 16% spend between 2 and 3, while a shocking 15% spend 5+ hours checking and sending emails each day.
Not only are we emailing a lot at work, 31% check their emails outside of work every few hours, whilst 8% check every hour and another 8% do this constantly.
All this time in our inboxes means that theres bound to be a few things that get on our nerves...
The perfect work email starts with Hi and ends in Kind Regards
When asking respondents to choose what they think is the best greeting for a work email, a simple route is taken. Hi takes the top spot for the best greeting, followed by Good Morning and Good Afternoon in second place.
The Top 5 best greetings for a work email:
- Hi 49%
- Good morning / afternoon 48%
- Hello 21%
- Dear 20%
- Happy [insert day]! eg Happy Friday! 7%
Now for the worst
It seems like no greeting is a big no-no, with 53% saying that not greeting the recipient is the worst way to start an email. This is followed by the impersonal To whom it may concern with 37% thinking this is unacceptable to use, with the friendly Hey takes third place [28%].
The top 5 worst greetings for a work email:
- No greeting 53%
- To whom it may concern 37%
- Hey 28%
- Happy [Insert day]! Eg Happy Friday 23%
- Greetings 22%
Kind Regards, Thanks and Regards are the best ways to end an email
It seems that while Kind Regards might get some stick, its still thought of as the best way to sign off an email, with 69% voting this into first place. Regards followed in third place with 31% rating this as the best greeting, missing out to Thanks or Thanks Again to second place.
The top 5 best ways to sign-off an email:
- Kind regards 69%
- Thanks or thanks again 46%
- Regards 31%
- Thanks in advance 21%
- Best wishes 20%
Love, warmly and cheers are rated the worst sign-offs
Unsurprisingly for the workplace, Love [57%] is rated the worst way to sign off an email, with Warmly closely following [31%].
Other sign-offs rated as unsuitable are Cheers, with over a quarter [26%] stating that it shouldnt be used in a work email, as well as Yours truly [24%] and Best [12%] making the list.
Even though you might not want to choose one from this list, you better make sure you sign-off your emails. whopping 44% of people state that no sign off is the worst.
Top 10 worst email sign offs ranked:
- Love 57%
- No sign off 44%
- Warmly 31%
- Cheers 26%
- Yours truly 24%
- Yours faithfully 18%
- Talk soon 14%
- Sincerely 12%
- Best 12%
- All the best 9%
So now we know the best ways to start and end an email, what gets our backs up inside an email? We asked respondents for the email cliches they just cant stand.
Here are some to be aware of so you dont annoy anyone in your next email
Just looping in and As per my last email are the most annoying email cliches
Sometimes you just cant help yourself from using a cliche, but there are some that you really want to avoid. Especially if you want to be on your respondents good side.
The most hated email cliche is Just looping in.., with a huge 37% stating that they find it annoying when the phrase is used in an email.
Looking at the rest of the list of annoying cliches, 3 of the top 5 relate to following up on something that was mentioned in a previous email. One third dislike the phrase as per my last email, followed by any updates on this? [24%] and Just checking in [19%]. It seems we dont like to be prompted to respond
The most annoying email cliches:
- Just looping in... 37%
- As per my last email 33%
- Any updates on this? 24%
- Just checking in 19%
- Confirming receipt / confirming that I have received this 16%
- Per our conversation 15%
- Please advise 8%
- Thanks in advance 7%
- Hope youre well 6%
Using capital letters, kisses and CCing people who dont need to be involved are the most annoying things you can do in an email
We also found the biggest email faux-pas, you might want to re-assess if you do any of these.
- Using capital letters for whole words or sentences 67%
- Using kisses or x 65%
- CCing people who dont need to be involved 63%
- Using slang, eg OMG 53%
- Using too many exclamation marks 52%
- Sending an email without proofreading 50%
- Sending very long emails 29%
- Using emojis 29%
- Not having an email signature 23%
- Double emailing 22%
- Using smiley faces 22%
- Using coloured fonts 21%
16% think that its never acceptable to use an exclamation mark in a work email
Delving deeper into the thoughts around exclamation marks, it turns out less is more in this regard.
A huge 16% think that its never acceptable to use an exclamation point in a work email, whilst 48% think that just 1 is acceptable, just 24% would stretch to 2.
So, which email cliches annoy you?