A business thank you letter strengthens the tie between a customer and the owner. It shows how one values the time, effort, and the act of patronizing meted out by the another. In short, it shows courtesy to the addressee for his or her contribution in a project or a social cause. Writing the letter is a kind gesture you must follow in your entire life whether you run a business or work in a non-profit organization.
Since people love to receive and read a thank you letter, you must not consider it as a liberty to write a lengthy letter. Your emotion can be expressed better in a few words. However, the letter must not contain just 'thank you.' The receiver must also know the reason for thanking him or her. Now, quite possible that the addressee must have showered his or her gratefulness on you for several times. Write it each time you are the beneficiary of the kind act. Equally important is to know when to write the letter. If the timing and purpose are not correct, the whole purpose of writing the letter will fall flat.
When a business thank you letter should be written:
Since time is crucial in business, you must value its importance. If your timing in writing the letter is not perfect, it will not have the kind of emotional impact it can deliver. Therefore, you must know when to write it. As a rule of thumb, your letter should fall in the mail box withing 48 hours from the time the generosity is bestowed upon you. Say for example, you are an employee of a non-profit organization and you received a check from a donor as a contribution to the welfare of the underprivileged children your organization is working for. You must not wait for the check to get clear. Your first act should be to write a thank you letter to the donor explaining how important his or her contribution will be for the underprivileged children, and how it is going to help them.
Another instance when you will need to write the business thank you letter is to thank a customer for sticking with you for years. Since retaining customers in a business is very important, you must not fail in thanking those who have been loyal to you. This will just make them happy and they may also refer others to do business with you. Such letter can be written when celebrating the business anniversary day, or when crossing a set sales target.
You will have many reasons and opportunities for writing the letter. In all the reasons, the important thing to know is that it should connect emotionally with the readers. For this, you don't have to use sentimental sentences or old proverbs. Just being yourself and expressing what your heart openly is enough for the readers to receive your expression.