There are still courteous folks they are just much less common today.

All,

Not just business calls. We have thrown parties, given wedding presents, baby gifts, you name it. We generally get no written thank you, no email, no texts.

With the utter ease of communication to say thanks seems to be just too much.

The business folks who are lazy on follow-up is the most puzzling to me.

In my company we returned all correspondence ASAP, even if it was an auto email that let folks know where were traveling and please contact XXX for immediate assistance.

And it is not just business generation, it is handling bad news as well: My metric is a problem handled within a day can be solved in two, ignoring a problem for more that a day means a week of additional work. Beyond that, often unsolvable.

With the tools at our disposal, it is a business sin in my mind not to be very responsive, even if the answer is we can't help at this time.

I think common courtesy is dying, but there are other factors. I am an executive, when I got my latest position, no less than 40 people, many of whom I barely knew contacted me insisting on meeting for coffee, lunch or whatever.

The vast majority of these are people who are looking to see if I will hire them or help them in their job search.....and so, sorry, I just have landed on only replying/responding to those whom I know well or where there is a plausible need to do business. The rest I try to get to as time permits, but practically I would say less than 50% ever hear from me.

Does this make me a bit of a prick? Absolutely and frankly I am starting to care less....

Dennis

It lives as long as we continue to practice it.

My customers are amazed when I ship same day on re-orders.

I was invited to a yacht club event and dinner by a moto-riding buddy (superior court judge) and his wife years back..
The following day I sent a Thank You card to his house.
For weeks after, he and his wife commented on how uncommon that was.
They said that they don't even get Thank You acknowledgments from their kids after receiving gifts.
America is under the influence of narcissism...a feeding frenzy.
Rarely do I get a hand wave from someone when I let them go ahead of me in traffic.