Is common courtesy dead?
 

I'm as busy as the next guy, but in this digital age, where you can compose an email or text message in 15 seconds and hit send, I do not understand why people are not responsive.

Placed a call and sent an email for a business space for lease. Nada

Contacted a broker about the status of a business I was wanting to place an offer on. Crickets

Recruiters leave me messages or emails about jobs, but don't hear anything back when I reply.

Dunno, if I am wanting to potentially hand someone serious money, you'd think some sort of response would be expected... Baffled...

Are my expectations too high? Or have we as a society become lazy, insincere, and not courteous?

Thoughts?

Yo Brad,

FWIW I had a new customer tell me earlier this week that I was the only one who returned phone calls promptly of all the trades he had dealt with recently.

The only one.....

I was a little taken back when he said that.

Business 101.....return phone calls asap.

Also my parents raised me to be courteous, thankfully!

Like you though.....it really amazes me how many don't understand this concept.

When I had my business I got tons of action from clients who reported that their providers would be slow to respond to phone calls. And was always complimented on my quick replies - within hours.
Snooze you lose, I found out.

Its not dead but it is sick.

screw you!












jk

indeed it is quite sickly. But it isn't being treated at all.

When I was in college working for a builder, he knew I was walking down the path of that business. His advice to me was, "Return phone calls and be there to see your clients when you when you say you are going to be there. they will be beating down your door asking you to work." I did just that (I normally do that withoout thinking about it anyway) and stayed pretty busy throughout the past 20 years.

I am used to people not calling back, so it doesn't bother me anymore.

Don't get me wrong. I don't take it personally. But if I am banging down your door with tens of thousands of dollars, I expect at least an email update. Has the economy turned around such that people don't need to give a ****? I guess my folks raised me better....

When I was in consulting years ago, and old boss showed me a survey of engineering clients and their consultants, if you returned calls promptly, advised timely about good/bad news, and met deadlines/informed timely about delays, you basically got a "B" and we hadn't even gotten to budget or work product yet.

Did a bathroom remodel.

First guy gave me an estimate in writing and shook my hand when I accepted. Never returned a phone call after that.

Found a tile guy a friend recommended and he never returned calls. Plumber said he'd stop on Monday...never showed up or returned calls.

I've run into this with landscaping and other projects. I can't imagine not returning the call of someone that wants to give you money. I assume they all just take the biggest project they currently have access to and blow off the rest. They're not going to risk losing a $10k job because they just lined up a $5k job and instead of having the guts to tell you they just hide.

I'll get back to you, I've got somebody on the other line.....

I think they are doing a bunch of smaller job and many of them just get lost because they can't keep track.

Did you try calling them back if you were interested in having them do the work? It works both ways.

Contractors are notorious for practicing this particular sport.
I know - I was in the business for 34 yrs. and was constantly turning down work...but responsibly so.
If I was too busy, I never submitted bids.

To answer your question: yes! Customer service is a thing of the past. Communication: email, text, social media, yes: interaction, no. This only will get worse.

Here is another perspective. As a small business, one man operation, there is just no possible way I can field every incoming communication that comes at me.
I find that between answering incoming land line calls, cell phone calls, walk ins, e mails, and texts, then the calls that I have to make in the course of doing business, that there is rarely a 5 minute span where I am not communicating with someone.
The juggling act of me answering the telephone, while simultaneously returning texts, all the while trying to work is sometimes comical.
Frequently , if I have a lot of work to do for the day/week, the only way that I can get it done is to just set the phones down, and go to work. Then the problem is that after working my can off all day, I find that I have 35 messages to return.

You know what they say about common courtesy and common sense? Unfortunately it isn't common.

I've always said, I can't think of a handful of people in the world who literally don't have the time to type a brief email: "no thanks", "not interested", etc. Maybe the president might not have time. Richard Branson. People like that. For everyone else, there's no excuse. It doesn't have to be within 5 minutes, but I was always taught that emails should be returned within 24 hours and phone calls within a day or 2.

I've been shopping for 2 major things this week, 1. a new commercial insurance policy for work (between $2-4000/year) and 2. new cabinets for our kitchen reno (anywhere from $5-40k). Neither are small purchases. I'm getting under 50% returned calls on the insurance policy and under 20% returned calls on the cabinets. Unbelievable. I thought we were in a recession, and people were hungry for business?

My company absolutely requires that customer calls be returned promptly if not answered before the third ring. Our field folks can not be more than 15 min early or late without a phone call. They are tracked by gps. Very customer centric organization. We have had sustained growth even in the teeth of this terrible economy. I think part of this is how we treat our customers.

For whatever reason I've never published(?) my cell phone or email address.
If I take off more than a couple of days in a row my answering machine MAY be full (I think it holds 40) but there'll only be a half-dozen messages.
But then I'm in something of a non-standard business.
Jim

Common courtesy? Walk through a busy airport lately?