Looking Forward to Hearing from You – Everything You Need to Know

Hey, email writers, Sandun here! Welcome to the “Email Etiquette Guru.” Are you waiting for a response? Because today, we are going to talk about the phrase “I am looking forward to hearing from you,” which is a response request.

It’s a bit unfamiliar to start an article with a title used to end something else.

Getting answers to your emails is something like a mind game. Because you gently force the recipient to take action without seeing each other.

Although most social media is available everywhere, we all still write emails for many reasons in our everyday life.

According to an email statistic report published by Radicati, there are 306.4 billion total worldwide emails sent/received per day in 2020 and are forecasted to increase to 361.6 by 2024.

Sometimes, we move to another step by asking the recipient to respond to our emails.

Maybe, we expect the recipient to respond to our emails sooner.

But how could we convince the responder to respond to our email? How to get a busy person to respond to your email?

Is it the art of getting a response or the phrases listed below?

Let’s find out what that means and what you need to know about it.

14 “Looking Forward to Hearing from You” Synonyms

The “I look forward to hearing from you” & “I’m looking forward to hearing from you” are the most common phrases that many of us use to ask politely responds to emails.

But there are many more synonyms.

Before we move forward, let’s look at the common phrases or the “looking forward synonyms” we frequently use to request responses for our emails.

Looking forward to hearing from you.	I look forward to hearing from you.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.	I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Looking forward to hearing back from you	I will look forward to hearing from you.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.	We look forward to hearing from you.
I am eagerly looking forward to hearing from you.	We are looking forward to hearing from you.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.	Hope to hear from you soon.
Eagerly looking forward to hearing from you	Looking forward to your response

What is the “looking forward”?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “looking forward to something” means the sender is pleased or expected to be pleased with something that happens in the future.

When you write it in your email, it means you expect a response from the recipient.

Perhaps you will have to wait without answering your message if you do not write “I am looking forward to hearing from you” in your email” to pass the signal that you are expecting a response.

The formality of the “looking forward.”

Before moving to talk about the formality of the “Looking Forward,” let’s try to under politeness in email communication.

According to Milica Savić (2018) of the University of Stavanger (Norway), politeness or impoliteness depends on the perception between sender & recipient. According to her, impoliteness happens when a mismatch between what the recipient expects and what the sender says.

So, it is a bad idea to say “please respond to this email” to your customers because they can easily misunderstand it.

Instead of saying that, it is pretty cool to let your recipient know that you are eagerly waiting for a response by saying, “I am looking forward to hearing from you,” because it is hard to be misunderstood by anyone.

“Am looking forward” vs. “look forward”

The difference between “.. am looking forward” and “.. look forward” is the friendliness.

Also, with the formal-informal debate, “I am looking forward” is more formal than writing, “I look forward.”

Both are valid polite ways to ask for a response.

But telling it in continuous tense make it friendlier to the reader.

On the other hand, when you say “I look forward ….” it reflects that you firmly tell your recipient that you are waiting for a response.

“To Hear From You” or “To Hearing From You”: Which one is grammatically correct?

Just ignore this section if you are better at English grammar.

The correct phrase, “I look forward to hearing from you,” though; why?

It is because of the difference between infinitive verbs and nouns.

If a -to is followed by a verb, the verb becomes an infinitive verb.

E.g.

• I want to call you
• I need to go there
• I need to give you

If a noun follows it, -to is considered a preposition.

But the verb is not “hear” the word “look.”

So, hear should act as an object.

Then it becomes a gerund that is a nonfinite verb form.

A gerund is the –ing form of a verb that functions the same as a noun.

15 Alternative Polite Ways to Say ” Looking Forward to Hearing from You”

However, because this phrase is widely used and too directive, this is not a good way to request a reply to your email.

Don’t you heard that “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?”

And when you say this, you can’t move forward without a response from the other person, and you must wait until it happens.

So, here are a few alternative ways to remind someone to reply to an email. You can use any of these phrases at the end of your email.

I’m eager to receive your feedback.	I will be waiting for your response
I appreciate your quick response.	Always happy to hear from you.
I request your respective feedback.	Keep me informed.
I await your immediate response.	Your restoration would be helpful.
Your Acknowledgment is needed.	Let me know if anything changes.
Your feedback will be of great assistance.	An early reply will be greatly obliged.
Write soon!	Please, give the subject your earnest consideration and respond positively.
It would be grateful if I get the feedback/reply/response at the earliest.

How to Ask Smartly for a Response in Email?

All the above phrases are used to do an action from the other person & it will automatically cause you to lose your active role in the email conversation.

Even if your receiver is not aware of what to do, you must wait until they respond to your email. And, it isn’t good.

Waiting longer is not a good sign in professional communication because it is very important to be successful in professional works with good time management.

So, in this case, what would be ideal to say to your recipient to get a positive response for your email at first most chance.

Rather than saying, “I am looking forward to hearing from you” or any other synonym, you can outfit your email with a creative call to action as following examples.

I plan to hand over our project proposal to the management board by Tuesday. Would you please send me your suggestions by Monday?

Let's meet at Tucker's for lunch. Does 12:30 p.m. on Thursday suit you?

Would you like me to send you our presentation when it's finalized?

Could you guide me to find the answer here?

Let’s Wrap All Together.

“I look forward to hearing from you” is a precise method to request a response from a recipient.

But there are many other ways to increase response rates for your emails.

Using correct email etiquette always backs you to achieve the best results for your emails.

So, as always, thanks for reading.

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