This week’s subject isn’t sexy, isn’t provocative and may not be that exciting, but its something that drives me insane. It’s a rant about communication and courtesy.
My wife and I needed some work done in and around the house in the last couple of weeks. Simple stuff, mind you. Needing the kitchen rewired to accommodate our new oven (we decided to replace the piece of crap oven we had, which only lasted 54 years, where’s quality when you need it?) and trying to find someone to pick up the hundreds of thousands of leaves that have infiltrated our yard in the past couple of weeks (let’s be clear, I’m a condo person, and I do not rake leaves, well, at least that’s my stance until Saturday rolls around and I’m told otherwise). Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, you’d think we were asking for the moon.
On the rewiring thing, we called four electricians, independent contractor type-guys, three of them referrals. We figured that we’d be able to get at least two maybe even three estimates. We called on Monday. By Friday, guess how many electricians had called us back? One. Which means we were completely ignored by three.
We also called four lawn & landscape people to ask for estimates on leaf pickup, including the dude who cuts our lawn every week. How many estimates did we get? NONE. That’s right, none. No one called us back, not even the guy who already works for us. I’m sorry, but that’s maddening!
This seems to be symptomatic about society these days. No one has the time or courtesy or respect to reply, unless of course it directly benefits him or her. We were talking that it might be just be limited to the independent contractor world, since they are all self-employed or work with small companies, so there’s not much training in communication or customer service. But that’s not true, it’s far more widespread than that. And that’s really bad.
As most of you know, I’m in the service business, so it’s my job to communicate every day with clients, media vendors, etc. Maybe I’m more sensitive to all this than most. But there are certain people, highly professional people, who work for some very high-profile companies that shall remain nameless, who have the same tendencies. I can send e-mails, leave voicemails, send proposals, offer free drinks or even my next of kin, and it doesn’t matter. They just won’t respond to the damn message.
When someone takes the time to leave you a voicemail (OK, not the annoying telemarketers who violate the no-call list and interrupt dinner), or send you an e-mail, it seems to me that it’s just common courtesy to reply in some way, shape or form, even if it’s just to say “Crazy busy, I’ll get back to you next week,” or even, “Sorry, I’m just not interested.” “Buzz off!” would work, too. Something. Anything. Some form of activity. Am I wrong? Should people be more responsive? What do you think?
Back to the one call we did get on the kitchen rewiring project. The electrician wound up coming over the next day, really impressed us and gave us what we thought was a fair estimate, so we hired him. He did a fabulous job, and to top it off, actually charged us less than the estimate because it didn’t take him as long as he thought it would. And the oven actually works! So if you need an electrician, let me know. All it took was a return call, and he got the job. Seems pretty simple when you get right down to it.
So if you’re reading this, make a vow to be better at responding, please, not only to close friends and business associates but also even to those people who you really don’t need or want to talk to. Out of courtesy. Out of consideration. Out of respect.
