Undercover Story: How good are Etiquette Professionals’ email etiquette skills really?

I was pretending to be someone who is interested in attending an etiquette course….

On the 1st November 2009, 11.15 pm, London local time, I wrote an email to 57 Etiquette Consultants worldwide (USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Singapore, Italy, India) and pretended to be interested in attending their etiquette course. I (my fake name was Romy Peters from the UK) asked for some more details such as duration, content, price etc. Well, there is an etiquette rule which says that you should reply to emails (possibly) within 24 hours. Would you like to know how many etiquette professionals really replied within 24 hours as the Etiquette rule goes? Have a look at the following results:

Out of 57 consultants:

27 replied within 24 hours

4 replied within 2 days

1 replied within 3 days

5 replied within 4 days

3 replied within 7 days

1 replied within 8 days

1 replied within 13 days

15 did not reply at all ….

Other interesting revelations …

If you are interested in knowing how they greeted me in their email, have a look at it:

Romy (chosen by 2 consultants)

Greetings! (1)

Hi Romy (1)

Dear Romy Peters (1)

Good morning (1)

Dear Romy (10)

Dear Romy Peters (4)

Hello Romy (4)

Hello Romy Peters (2)

Greetings, Romy Peters (1)

Hello and delighted to hear from you (1)

Hello (1)

Dear Ms Peters (8)

Dear Mr. Peters (2)

Mr. Peters (1)

Two Consultants didn’t choose any greeting at all.

While the salutation was not chosen at all by 6 Consultants, those who included a salutation wrote as follows:

Best regards (chosen by 8 consultants)

Kind regards (3)

Cordially (1)

Regards (3)

Warmest regards (1)

Warm Regards (1)

Warmly (1)

Kindest regards (2)

With kind regards (1)

Warm regards to you (1)

Warmest Personal Regards, your friend (1)

Yours sincerely (2)

Sincerely (9)

Thank you (1)

Respectfully yours (1)

* There was one Etiquette Consultant who apologised for coming back after 4 days due to training reasons.

• There were four Etiquette Consultants who had spelling mistakes in their email.
• There were three Etiquette Consultants who subscribed me to their newsletter without asking me.