Responding promptly and clearly to meeting requests is important for building rapport and being professional at work.
Quick response to the meeting invite with a professionally crafted email shows respect to the organizer as well as other attendees.
Here is how you can confirm a meeting via text or email.
How to Confirm a Meeting by Email
Knowing how to confirm a meeting via email professionally is important if you want to prevent misunderstanding and make a great impression at work.
A confirmation email is one of the few most important emails you’ll need to know when you work in the office or, remotely.
1. Review the meeting request before responding.
Take some time to read the meeting invitation before crafting a response to the meeting request.
Things you’ll need to do before responding to the meeting requests.
- Read the invitation carefully
- Know who is the organisor.
- Know who is the attendee
- Understand the agenda of the meeting.
- Check your calendar.
- Set priority on the meeting accordingly.
Confirming a meeting requires you to be clear in your response, while you need to ensure you have all the information you’ll need to prepare for the meeting.
2. Acknowledge meeting invite
Start your email by acknowledging their meeting invites. Acknowledgment of received of the email is a basic courtesy to the organizer of the meeting where it serves as an introduction to your email reply.
Example of acknowledgment to email invites
- “I’ve received the meeting request that you’ve sent on…”
- “This is a reply to your meeting invite on…”
- “I’am writing in response to your meeting invite on…”
An acknowledgment is simply to recognize that the meeting invite has been received, but it does not require you have stated your decision made in regards to the organizer’s request.
3. Thank the organizer for the meeting invite
Being polite and thanking the organizer for the meeting invite is probably the best way to start an email response. This is especially true if the email invite is from an external party or someone who you barely know.
Having said so, no one will blame you for being too polite and thanking them for their effort in organizing the meeting.
Thanking the organizer for their interest in meeting you is considered good business etiquette, and should be practiced for most responses to meeting invites.
Thank you for the invitation examples
- “I appreciate the invitation.”
- “Thank you for inviting me.”
- “Thank you for having me/us.”
- “Thank you for the meeting request.”
- “I appreciate your interest in meeting me and setting up this meeting.”
Thanking the organizer for the meeting request should be done in the first paragraph. Thanking the organizer is often used as an acknowledgment of the meeting request.
4. Confirmation of your attendance to the meeting
Let the organizer know clearly and early in your response if you will attend the meeting. Confirmation to a meeting should be brief and specific using the professional format and formal language.
There are 3 types of reply to a meeting invite
- Accepting and confirming on the meeting request
- Rejecting the meeting invite
- Tentatively accepting the meeting invite
Confirm meeting invites example
- “I am writing to confirm our meeting.”
- “I am happy to confirm the meeting.”
- “This is to confirm the meeting.”
Rejecting a meeting invites example
- “I am unable to attend the meeting on…”
- “My apologist that I will not be able to come for the meeting on…”
- “I will like to thank your invite but I am unable to attend the meeting set on…”
Tentatively accepting a meeting example
- “As there is a conflict in the meeting, I will try my best to attend the meeting if the previous meeting ends earlier.”
- “As I will be on business trip, I may not be accessable to a stable internet connection. I will like to tentativelly accept your meeting. Otherwise, I will be back in office by [Date], if you’ve decide to reschedule the meeting.”
- “I will like to tentatively accept the meeting due to possible conflict of meeting during the scheduled time and date.”
5. Reminder on the details of the meeting
In your response to the meeting invite, you should add a reminder on the details of the meeting. In your reply, you should remind the organizer what are the date, time, and mode of how the meeting is organized.
Reminder in your email response serves to prevent miscommunication on the details of the meeting.
Mode of meeting
- Interpersonal meeting. Face to face meeting where people meet at a certain location where you will communicate with your four senses; visual, audio, smell and touch.
- Virtual meeting. Web conference where people meet through an online software transfering information between individuals. Communication will be performed by your two senses; visual and audio.
- Phone meeting. Communication between one or more individual with only one sense; audio.
Example of a reminder on the details of the meeting
- “Will just like to confirm that the meeting will be held at [Location], on [Date] at [TIme], is that correct?”
- “Just confirming some details of the meeting. It will be an online meeting on [Zoom/Microsoft Teams/WebEx] set on [Date] at [TIme], am I correct?”
- “I will be attending the meeting, but just to confirm that we will be having the meeting at [Location], on [Date] at [Time], right?
6. Use reference in your email response
When replying to a meeting invite, it is advisable to use the email reference as the subject title of your reply email. Using reference in your email allows the email receiver to know what is this email about before opening the email to read its content.
Subject title with email reference starts with “RE”.
If you are replying to the meeting invites through Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, the email service provider will automatically add “RE:” into the subject line when you click “Reply” or “Reply All”.
7. Use a professional closing
While casual closing phrases might be fine if you are sending an email to a friend or exchanging communication with close colleagues. When sending an email at work, it is important to end with a formal closing.
Professional email closing examples
- “Best Regards”
- “Kind Regards”
- “Warm Regards”
- “Regards”
- “Best”
- “Respectfully”
- “Sincerely”
Meeting Confirmation Email Sample (Templates)
Meeting confirmation should be done professionally, and “OK” is not the right way to confirm a meeting invite. Here we have a few examples that you can use to reply to a meeting invite.
- Online meeting invite
- Phone meeting invite
- Interpersonal meeting invite
Online Meeting Confirmation Email
Subject: RE: Online meeting for ABC Project
Dear [Name],
Thank you for reaching out to me.
I would like to confirm our online meeting with [Zoom/Microsoft Teams/WebEx] scheduled for the [Date] at [Time].
I appreciate your acknowledgment to the same, if this meeting time is still convenient for you, or if there are any changes.
Kind Regards,
[Your Name]