Business etiquette is one of those things, you either have it or you don’t. If you don’t have it though you can always learn it. I am always amazed to see how many people are so quick to want to call themselves entrepreneurs, and so quick to harness their titles but don’t even know what responsibilities comes with it.
I think I am going to make this a regular topic, as I seem to be faced with this at least once a week. Here is one of my many stories.
Marsha (let’s call her that) was a client of mine when she worked at a well respected fashion company. The company was very reputable around the world, and I guess she felt that because she worked there she was allowed to be as snotty as possible. I could sense in her tone on the phone that she wasn’t the most keen at dealing with me. I have learned early on in my career to not take those signs personally, sometimes the person you are dealing with may have had a bad day, or they may HATE their job. Anyway, I brushed it off kept it going, we were working on a huge event with her company, and my company collaborating.
Still, everytime we spoke her tone was very sour and she didn’t seem to think I was competent to do the job. One day, she was randomly at an event I put together, my boss was standing near speaking to her boss. I guess they had no idea yet that my boss was my boss lol and that I set up the whole event (he knew she had been giving me a hard time) The girl in question Marsha, starts talking about the event with her boss and my boss there. She goes “Who is this girl Krissy anyway, what’s her deal, why do I have to work with her.” To her great surprise my boss replied “Well actually Krissy is our best employee, she has brought great value to our company and continually exceeds her sales quota. You can ask any of the clients here, she actually put this event together too”.
I still wish I was there to see her face when he said this to her. When my boss told me this I was a bit upset, but I kept it professional and knew that we had to finish planning the event we were working on. I just wanted to get it over with. We pulled it off, no drama. Got it done.Now almost a year later, I get a message on my phone today ” Hi Krissy, its Marsha- I wanted to know if you could give me a call back I work at a new company and they wanted a huge favor from you guys. I hope you can come through for me”.
Can I tell you that I played that message maybe 3 times before I called her back. How funny that she was actually nice now. So I called her back, seems she got fired from her prestigious position and is now working at retail. (nothing wrong with retail but the fact that she was so snobby before I found it ironic) Anyway, I was nice again. I couldn’t help but think that repeated poor business etiquette is what was her downfall. Never downplay someone, you never know when you will need them. Not only that but in her case, never speak badly about someone especially a client, as you never know who may know them and what kind of relationship they may have with them. Nevermind all that, it makes you look stupid.
Has this ever happened to you? Anything similar?
