Dr David Cliff explores the most common cliché in business.
Those of you who know me know that I maintain courtesy in business is an absolute prerequisite to good trading and good business relationships. The ability to acknowledge someone’s humanity, over the transactional nature of the business in hand is central to who we are as people. The old adage “people buy from people”, is a truism, not a cliché.
Modern social exchanges often involve increasingly distant communication through electronic devices, particularly since the advent of social media. An increasing use of emails may be convenient but has the tendency to distance and depersonalise. We can communicate whilst severing the natural human reciprocity that naturally occurs in face-to-face communication and constitutes the basis of so many of our relationships. You might not need this closeness for a simple transaction, but for a lasting relationship based on more than just the exchange of goods and services you need trust, understanding, customer centrism and true reciprocity. These things are truly essential.
One of the most frustrating things I see across business are those people who are happy to garner the time and efforts of individuals and organisations in an attempt to meet their needs for goods and services. Then, at a pre-contractual stage, people will go into what I call “I’ll get back to you mode”. Sometimes this is a genuine need for time to consider something of great importance, sometimes it is simply because the circumstances are not yet ripe for the proposed exchange to take place. All too often, however, people have thought beyond the original exchange and have decided that they seek something else, have lost energy on an idea they originally thought was a solution for them, or simply can’t afford to proceed or just don’t have the time to proceed.
That is not the problem of the trader who has taken the time and effort to engage with a potential customer, discuss the issues and attempt to frame an offer that is central to why they are in business. They are left waiting, they don’t know whether it’s proceeding or not. They then have to progress chase to clarify what is going on, having already devoted time and effort to securing your business. This lack of reciprocity, this “kicking down the road” or just completely ignoring someone is intensely egocentric on the part of the person who fails to communicate. “I’ll get back to you” or worse, complete failure to respond fundamentally affects future working relationships. It is intensely devaluing of people and a poor reflection of the integrity of the offender.
The world is getting an increasingly remote place. Business relationships, just like other relationships are bounded by not just the nature of the transaction. They involve sharing human qualities that are essential to define who we are. In a world of globalisation and automation, we can all too quickly forget that. AI on its own is not the answer either. It “can get back to people” but often in inauthentic ways that can easily reduce people to feeling like a “data packet” or just plain manipulated. It is this very space that small to medium size businesses can excel in, provided they honour the simple protocol of courtesy, reciprocity and to communicate rather than just maintain “radio silence”.
But dear reader, you never do that do you?
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