You want to resolve an issue to the best of your abilities, but the added pressure of an impatient client, colleague, or boss can be distracting. So, how can you go about asking for patience in professional correspondence?
In this article, we’ll show you 10 alternative examples of how to ask someone to be patient in an email. In addition, we’ll discuss the correctness of the phrase please be patient.
10 Alternative Ways to Say “Please Be Patient”
Below, you’ll find 10 other ways to say please be patient in an email:
- Thank you for your patience
- I do appreciate your patience thus far
- Please bear with me for just a moment longer
- Thank you for waiting
- I apologize for making you wait
- Sorry to keep you waiting
- This should only take a moment
- Please wait a moment
- Kindly have patience
- Thanks for sticking with us
1. Thank You for Your Patience
The most popular way to ask for patience from a client or customer tends to be not asking at all. Rather, it is common to simply say thank you for your patience.
This phrase may be considered a bit presumptuous. After all, you are presuming that the client is being patient when, in reality, they may be rather annoyed about having to wait.
Nevertheless, this is a standard phrase used in a customer service setting. You can’t control how a customer is going to react to a problem. All you can do is be as polite as possible to mitigate any frustration on their end.
Therefore, let’s see this phrase in an email sample:
Dear Miss Rupert,
We have received your request and are working to redeliver your order.
We thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Lilly Marston
2. I Do Appreciate Your Patience Thus Far
I do appreciate your patience thus far is another way to express thanks when you know you have kept a client or customer waiting.
However, this phrase comes across as a touch more friendly and personable than the phrase above. Therefore, it’s a good choice if you are talking to a long-term client and want to maintain a professional yet friendly rapport with them.
Saying I do appreciate your patience thus far is courteous and suitably formal for a business setting. In addition, it shows that you value your client and their time.
See the example below:
Dear Ms. Ọlaifa,
I can see the cause of the error, and it will take a few moments to resolve.
I do appreciate your patience thus far, and I will do my best to have your account back in order as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Benjamin Keats
3. Please Bear With Me for Just a Moment Longer
Another way to say please be patient is please bear with me for just a moment longer. This phrase is a touch more personable, so it may not be the most appropriate choice if you want to keep a formal tone in your work emails.
However, if you tend to have a fairly friendly rapport with your clients, this is a good option. This phrase implies that you are working hard to resolve the issue.
Moreover, rather than asking them to regulate their frustration, it places the burden on you to solve the issue in just a moment.
Have a look at how we’ve used this phrase in an email example:
Hi Matt,
I have looked into your query, and I will run an error report on your software.
Please bear with me for just a moment longer as I try my best to resolve the issue.
Kind regards,
Jerry
4. Thank You for Waiting
Thank you for waiting is a slightly less formal synonym for thank you for your patience. Like the latter phrase, this one doesn’t ask for patience. Rather, it assumes the other person is being patient and expresses gratitude for that.
You can use this phrase when you are hoping for patience from one of your colleagues.
In a busy office setting, it is often suitable to use plain, straightforward phrasing in your emails. Therefore, you can do away with the formalities, especially if you are speaking to a coworker you are close to.
For example:
Hi Pamela,
I just have a few more emails to send, and then I’ll meet you in Room 6.
Thank you for waiting!
All the best,
Deidre
5. I Apologize for Making You Wait
If you are emailing your boss, you may want to avoid a phrase like please be patient, since it can come across as demanding if you aren’t careful.
Instead, you can simply apologize for the wait, as your courtesy will hopefully quell their frustration and buy you some time.
Consider the sample email below:
Dear Ms. Howard,
I apologize for making you wait, and I will have the report finalized shortly.
Kind regards,
Patrick Wayne
6. Sorry to Keep You Waiting
Sorry to keep you waiting is a slightly less formal variation of the phrase above. Therefore, you can use this phrase in an email to a colleague if you know that they have halted their day to await your response.
It is polite to acknowledge that you have kept them waiting and apologize rather than expecting them to exercise patience whenever you are creating a delay.
Therefore, let’s see an email sample that includes this phrase:
Hi Len,
Sorry to keep you waiting.
I’ll be there in two minutes.
Best,
Charlie
7. This Should Only Take a Moment
A different way to say please be patient is to ask for patience indirectly by saying this should only take a moment.
You can use this phrase in an email to a client or customer to let them know that you are working on the issue and that it will soon be resolved.
In saying this should only take a moment, you are essentially asking the client to wait for that moment longer.
However, this phrase is a slightly safer option, as it doesn’t directly ask them to exercise patience. Still, you can use it to buy yourself some additional time.
See the example below:
Dear Kelly,
I will quickly reboot the system to see if the problem persists.
This should only take a moment.
Regards,
Theodore
8. Please Wait a Moment
Another example of how to tell someone to be patient in an email is to say please wait a moment.
Please wait a moment is a more direct way to ask for patience from a client. However, this phrase manages to come across as a tad more tentative than please be patient.
After all, asking someone to please be patient sounds as if you are asking them to regulate their emotions.
Meanwhile, please wait a moment asks for patience more indirectly. Moreover, it implies that the problem will be solved soon, which will hopefully ease the other person’s annoyance.
See how we’ve used this phrase in an email example:
Dear Mr. Hart,
I have accessed your file.
Please wait a moment while I run a search through its content.
Regards,
Eliza Doran
9. Kindly Have Patience
If you’re wondering how to say please be patient professionally, you can try the phrase kindly have patience.
When you work in a very formal setting, such as a public office, for instance, you may need to maintain a highly formal tone in your emails to clients.
The phrase kindly have patience is essentially a more formal way to say please be patient. However, this phrase comes across as a tad less demanding than the original.
To see what we mean, have a look at the following email sample:
Dear Mr. Kurthwan,
We are writing to let you know that we have received your query.
Kindly have patience as we forward your complaint to the most relevant department.
Sincerely,
Juniper Josham
10. Thanks for Sticking With Us
If you work for a smaller business, you may use a more informal tone when assisting customers with their inquiries.
You can use the phrase thanks for sticking with us when a customer has had to wait while you try to resolve their issue.
This phrase is friendly and shows that you don’t take their time for granted, which is always good in a customer service role!
Let’s see this phrase in our final example:
Hi Jody,
Thanks for sticking with us while we look into your inquiry.
All the best,
Liam Thorn
Is It Correct to Say “Please Be Patient”?
It is correct to say please be patient in an email when you are taking time to resolve an issue and you know the recipient is waiting.
Depending on the overall tone of your message, this phrase can sound a tad demanding and even rude. However, it is used commonly in professional emails to customers, and you can get away with using it in emails to your boss or colleagues as long as the rest of your message is polite.
Below, we’ve drafted two email examples showing you how to use this phrase in a professional setting:
First, we’ll look at an email to a customer after they have made a complaint or query:
Dear Mr. Cornwall,
We have received your query.
Please be patient as we assess your account.
Regards,
Leila Reeseman
You can also use this phrase when asking your colleagues for understanding, like so:
Dear Natalie,
I will work on getting that back to you this afternoon.
Please be patient with me, as I have never used the company software before.
Kind regards,
Jim
To avoid any future embarrassment, we’ll look at a common grammar mistake people make when employing this phrase:
Mistake: Saying patience instead of patient
- Incorrect: Please be patience.
- Correct: Please be patient.
“Patience” is a noun and “patient” is an adjective. Thus, a person cannot be “patience” any more than they can be “desk” or “painting.” However, they can be “patient,” as this is a descriptive word.
So, we know that the phrase please be patient is perfectly correct. However, this phrase is rather standardized, and there are several more polite ways to ask for patience and understanding.
Therefore, you can use one of the alternative phrases from our list to mix up your phrasing and keep your work correspondence diverse.
