{"id":1205,"date":"2006-04-29T13:05:16","date_gmt":"2006-04-29T17:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2012-07-29T20:55:43","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T00:55:43","slug":"wheres-the-respect-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wheres-the-respect-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Where’s The Respect?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preface: I originally wrote this on April 29, 2004<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m surprised that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing about this once again. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I keep wondering what has happened to business courtesy when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little courtesy in the regular world. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I still let some of these things bother me; they just do.<\/p>\n

Some weeks ago I was contacted by someone who asked if I was available for a project they had in New Jersey. I said I was, and I was told that the client was really eager to get someone in, and that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be calling me back in a couple of days. I never heard back from him. I called and left a message twice, and he did call back to leave another message, saying he was still working on it but would contact me at the beginning of the next week. I never heard another word.<\/p>\n

About two and a half weeks ago I heard from someone else asking me if I was available for a project in Michigan. I said I was available, as I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heard from the other person, and I was told that I would be contacted by the next afternoon, after she had spoken to the potential client. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve called two or three times, and I really haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spoken to her since. I say it that way because once I reached her, she asked if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d call her back at a specific time, and when I called at that time she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t available.<\/p>\n

About a week ago I spoke to someone else who wanted to know about my availability for an assignment. I happened to be available, and I said I could do the assignment. She said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get back to me. She didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, but this time I was able to talk to her. She said they were on hold with the assignment, and she was sorry she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even thought about calling me back.<\/p>\n

These are just a few situations that have occurred to me. I talk to people all the time who each have their stories of being mistreated or not having courtesy shown to them by someone else who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to be a professional. <\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the story of a gentleman who called someone up to set up a meeting. He was told by the client that he had another meeting first, in his office, but would like to meet him. The gentleman shows up and the other guy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not there, but he decides to wait 30 minutes for a no-show. He calls this guy at least 3 times and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t answer his phone. They schedule another meeting for 3:00 the next day, the gentleman calls around 1:00 to confirm, but when he calls again around 2:30 to tell him he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on his way, suddenly the phone is disconnected.<\/p>\n

Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the story of the woman and her husband, who decided to have some repair work done in their home. One of those repair jobs was an irritating leak in one of the upstairs showers. They chose a handyman, set up the appointment set, and all seemed okay. The policy of this company was if their service person is late, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d receive a $25 discount. Well, not only was he late, they had to reschedule the appointment 2 weeks later! <\/p>\n

She takes the day off to wait for the repairman to arrive for his 10am appointment. At 3:30pm, she has to call to find out if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to show, and is told he would be there by 5pm. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now $50 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re owed. The guy finally arrives at 5:30pm (they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now owed $75) and dutifully crawls into the space beneath the shower. He emerges to tell them that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t repair the shower leak unless he cuts a hole in the ceiling above the kitchen sink, adding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, and by the way, I lost the back to the telephone (which they were using to talk to him as a walkie talkie; the phone was only 2 months old), which I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find in the crawl space, and I broke the hatch door (it was totally splintered). But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make you a new one and be back in an hour!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still waiting for the guy to return, the shower still leaks and they had to order the replacement part for their telephone.<\/p>\n

It makes you wonder how anyone stays in business. One has to wonder when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lack of customer respect, rather than customer service, what the agenda is. If you decide that these acts aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meant to be malicious, then you have to figure that it comes down to one of three things; fear, disrespect, or stupidity. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explore these.<\/p>\n

Fear could be a legitimate reason for not getting back to someone, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a weak one. We all have a fear of the unknown. If you have no idea how someone else might respond to whatever it is you have to tell them, it could paralyze you. Even if the perception is incorrect, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still that person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception. Many of us have those types of fears when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to promote ourselves, so why would we think it would be different for someone who has to give news that wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be considered good? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a bad way to run a business. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid to call someone back, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a manager or business owner, you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in a position of leadership.<\/p>\n

Disrespect is not a legitimate reason for treating a client or customer badly, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen it often enough. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard employees say that someone deserves whatever, because of some perceived slight the client or customer gave them, or just because they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the person. Business isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t supposed to be personal, but many people take it that way. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll recognize that some clients can be nothing but trouble to work with; if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take the job, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work with the person, and be adult enough to tell them so.<\/p>\n

Stupidity is inexcusable, but expected. There are some people who really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing things wrong. They are so inconsiderate and self centered that they really can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treating someone else in an inappropriate manner. How these people stay in business, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never understand, but they do. How these people progress and end up in positions of leadership in companies, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never understand, but they do. For these folks, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never about anyone else; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about them.<\/p>\n

Customer respect isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all that hard to follow through on. We all say we want to be treated as we treat others. For many people, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly how they are being treated; they just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it. How much effort does it take to be nice to people? How much effort does it take to be courteous? Is it such a problem to be upfront and honest? Or am I just being too sensitive?
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preface: I originally wrote this on April 29, 2004 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m surprised that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing about this once again. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I keep wondering what has happened to business courtesy when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little courtesy in the regular world. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I still let some of these things bother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1205","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ttmitchellconsulting.com\/Mitchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}