compliments slip

{{Short description|Small acknowledgement note, less formal than a letter}}

File:Hollick_and_Taylor_compliments_slip_-_1951.jpg

A compliments slip (or with compliments slip) is a slip of paper that contains the same name and address information that would be on a letterhead of formal letter stationery, the pre-printed salutation "with compliments" or "with our/my compliments", and space afterwards for a short handwritten message to be added.{{cite book|title=The design manual|author=David Whitbread|pages=73|publisher=UNSW Press|year=2001|isbn=9780868406589}}{{cite book|title=Explore Essential English|author=Mark Slim|pages=461|publisher=A.D.R. London Limited|year=2003|isbn=9781901197129}} It is used in correspondence, as an enclosure for other material.

Compliments slips, which are informal, can sometimes substitute for more formal letters of reply. For example, the response to a request for a product catalogue or a price list may simply be the price list or catalogue, with a compliments slip attached, rather than with a formal letter of reply.{{cite book|title=Edexcel leisure and tourism GCSE|author1=Diane Canwell |author2=Jonathan Sutherland |pages=231|publisher=Nelson Thornes|year=2003|isbn=9780748780310}}{{cite book|title=Model business letters, e-mails & other business documents|author1=Shirley Taylor |author2=Leonard Gartside |pages=64|publisher=Pearson Education|year=2004|isbn=9780273675242}} The inclusion of compliments slips in responses to such routine requests is often seen by businesses as a necessary step in maintaining good public relations.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The encyclopedia of ephemera|author1=Maurice Rickards |author2=Michael Twyman |author3=Sally De Beaumont |author4=Amoret Tanner |article=compliments slip|pages=103|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|isbn=9780415926485}}

There is no fixed size for compliments slips. They may vary in size from the size of a business or visiting card, from which compliments slips originally evolved, to the size of a whole sheet of letter writing paper. Eric Bain recommends that they be of a size suitable for placing inside an envelope without more than one fold, and large enough to be noticed when included in a parcel. (Standard letter stationery outside the U.S. often requires folding twice in order to be placed inside envelopes.{{cite book|title=The Designer's Toolkit|author=Graham Davis|pages=88|publisher=Chronicle Books|year=2007|isbn=9780811860512}}) To this end he recommends that compliments slips be size A6 paper.{{cite book|title=The theory and practice of typographic design|author=Eric K. Bain|pages=95|publisher=Hastings House|year=1970}} Miller recommends size A5 for stationery that doubles up as both compliments slip and headed letter paper.{{cite book|title=Starting and running a sandwich-coffee bar|author=Stephen Miller|pages=72|publisher=How To Books Ltd|year=2002|isbn=9781857038057}}

Since they are informal, compliments slips are not substitutes in those cases where a formal letter is required for legal reasons. In building contract work, for example, a drawing or a copy letter sent to a contractor with a compliments slip attached is not a formal instruction to perform the work on the drawing or letter. It is at most an invitation to perform that work, at no charge to the employer. A valid instruction would be a formal letter of instruction, or an instruction provided on a printed "Architect's Instruction" form (signed by the architect).{{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopedia=Building Contract Dictionary|author=David Chappell, Vincent Powell-Smith, Derek Marshall, and Simon Cavender |article=Instructions |pages=219|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2001|isbn=9780632039647}}

Falconer states that a compliments slip should never be sent instead of a personal letter, and that it is better to send a personal letter in response to a customer enquiry, because it provides a personal touch.{{cite book|title=Good English—How to Speak and Write It|author=Angus D. Falconer|chapter=Business letters and how to write them|pages=376|publisher=READ BOOKS|year=2008|isbn=9781443702904}} Hailey recommends an alternative strategy for providing a personal touch: removing the salutation from compliments slips, thus forcing the entire note to be hand-written.{{cite book|title=Kickstart Marketing|author=Linda Hailey|pages=234|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=2001|isbn=1-86508-387-9}}