R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Sock it to Me

I’m sure you’ve come across my newest pet peeve yourself.  Probably more than once.

I honestly don’t have many pet peeves, but the few that I have belong in some sort of peeve hall of fame…or would that be hall of shame?

The newest entry is this:  It peeves me when a businessman or businesswoman simply becomes a busy-man or busy-woman, to the point of being too busy for their customers or clients.  Instead of serving the people who got them to where they are, they’re too busy going after new people - bigger and so-called better things.

If your business is “blowing up,” so to speak, the people with the cash are the dynamite.  Your customers or clients got you there - you didn’t wake up one day and arrive there all by yourself.  You can, however, wake up one day and find that it all came to an end.

People who are in business for themselves are especially bad at forgetting this simple fact.   All they can think of is growing their business by coming up with new products, new software, new this, new that.  They often leave you with the impression that you’re no longer important to them, as though you’re “so yesterday.” 

Not cool.

I’ve noticed it online a lot lately.  Frankly, I think that if an individual ever tells a customer or potential customer that they’re too busy to take care of something, the customer should say, “Wow, I’m really sorry that my money and I bothered you.  We’ll go bother someone else now.  And, don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone I know to do the same. Have a great day.”

I can’t even imagine telling someone who had respected me enough to use my product or service that I was “too busy” for them.  If you’re that swamped, why not say, “I really want to help you, and I promise I will. I have 100 pots on a 4 burner stove right now, so I can’t promise that I’ll be able to help you as soon as I’d prefer to, but know that you are a priority.  I will take care of this as soon as possible.  Thanks so much for understanding!”

Yet, what do you get from most of these people?  “I’m just too busy.”

Again, not cool.

These are generally the same people who think they’re waaaay above answering the telephone.  You leave a message for them and they never return it. You call again.  Nothing.  Whatever happened to treating people with respect? Your reputation is riding on it.

I guess it’s something we all need to be more mindful of.  Whether we’re running our own business or running a household (or both).  We should treat everyone around us with the respect they deserve.  If someone does something for us and we neglect to say, “Thank you!” - we disrespected them. 

If we aren’t willing to put ourselves out for other people, why should they ever put themselves out for us?  It’s possible…it’s just possible…that we’re becomming far too “me” oriented.  Looking out for number 1 will leave you as alone as the number 1. 

Very not cool.