Should this be a post or should it be kept secret and let me seethe away on my own!

Well, you’re reading this so you know the conclusion I came to.

This is, (in X factor style) in no particular order.

After the obligatory 100 year pause:

• Bad customer service. I’ve written about this before. See Customer Service. Why do some businesses seem to actively discourage people from buying form them. I don’t get it.
• Arrogance. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Confidence is great (and needed a lot) but don’t cross that line. Arrogance is the worst. You are not God’s gift to mankind. Your opinion is not the correct one every single time.
• Apathy. The dictionary describes this as: absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. There must be one thing that excites you. Somewhere. Come on get off the couch and find it. Preferably it will be getting a nice shiny new website through DP Web Development.
• Pigeon holing people. Just ‘because someone is one something once doesn’t mean they always will be. If they were we would be a much poorer world. Encourage people, help them keep in touch they can become great like you.  Someone once tried to encourage me at the beginning of my career. Hey there are plenty of jobs at your level. (!) I don’t want to stay on this level I want to go the next level and the next and the next. I changed and grew. Everyone can. Don’t place people in a box. You’ll almost always get it wrong.
• Not replying to my email. Bit like bad customer service. It is only manners. I took the trouble to compose an email and send it the least you can do is acknowledge it! A lot of Companies looking to recruit are guilty of this. At least acknowledge receipt of the damn application. Don’t use the excuse you get so many. You can send one email to many people you know) Even an automatic reply is better than nothing.
• Breaking a promise. This is the same as destroying trust. It is as true for business as it is for friendships. DO what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it. Is it that hard? Don’t say you’ll do something if you can’t deliver. I promise to reply to every message I get within 24 hours. Unless it’s Spam.
• Lateness.  It’s not cool to arrive “fashionably late” It’s rude.  The party starts at 5. That doesn’t mean you should arrive at 6. It means you should arrive at 5. Is that so strange?
• Bad manners.  Just because you’re the customer doesn’t’ mean you can behave as badly as possible. Say please and thank you. Don’t rant if a staff member   makes a mistake. It doesn’t help. It doesn’t make you any more important than you already are.  (It has the opposite effect).   Say please and thank you. Mile when you say it and mean it. Trust me; you’ll be a happier person for it.

And last but by no means least. The UK passport office. They lost my passport. That really annoyed me.

There are other things. But I think these are the main ones (at the moment!)

What annoys you? Do you agree / disagree with me?

Pushing people over, fighting in the queue, swearing at all the other lousy drivers. All bad manners in themselves but I want to talk about the one that really grates with me…ignoring emails.

When did it become ok to do this? Obviously ignore spam but the others? Would you do the same if I were talking to you face to face? And don’t say you don’t have the time. Even a “thanks for the email it has been gratefully received” is better than nothing. How long did that take to write? Three seconds…I type slowly!

For example:

Application forms. I’m sure (at least once) we have all taken time, care and a lot of effort into applying for a job.  To send it to the prospective employer and then hear nothing at all. To me that’s not right. Don’t say you get too many applications, you can still only type one email and send it to the all the unsuccessful people. Believe me it makes a difference.  Show you appreciate the efforts people have gone to in making the application. They have tried their best and you want to acknowledge this. Encourage them even to keep on trying. How many applications will someone make when all they get is silence? It saps the spirit. I know. I ‘ve been there.

Another example from the business world. This has happened to me recently. I was at a breakfast meeting and met one particular person, got chatting and he suggested we could certainly do business together. He sometimes got clients who wanted websites created or updated that he could not provide but I could. For an agreed price I could take on the project.

“Send me some examples of you work” he said

“No problem, I’ll send them later today”

True to my word I did. With the message “please let me have your comments good or bad”

I  got a message back, “thanks Doug I’ll look at them later”.

And then nothing. Not a word to say he didn’t like them, or that it wasn’t the style he was looking for. Wrong coding language even. Nothing.

IS IT SO HARD TO HAVE THE MANNERS TO CONFRIM IF HE LIKES THEM OR NOT. IT’S NOT HARD!

A clue it could start, “Thanks Doug I think the websites are …. ” for all I know he may love the websites (a lot of people do) and will call me when something comes up. I honestly have no idea.

Yes I have emailed him again. Surprise surprise no response. Is this how he treats all potential business leads? It’s a wonder he still has any to be honest.

I don’t think he has anything against me or has even thinks anything is wrong. This is how common this has become. To me it’s plain manners.

So a plea: Please respond to emails. You never know what may happen down the road. I may have a lot of work to send this person’s way. I won’t. If he ignores their emails (like mine) then it will reflect extremely badly for my business.

Replying to loads of emails may take some time but it is worth it. You never know what a single reply might generate. The email doesn’t have to be a stellar piece of prose but respond, even if it is negative news.

I promise to respond each and every email or comment I receive (unless of course it is spam)

Am I wrong? What are you thoughts?