There appears to be a serious lack of interest in many Senior Executives in finding out exactly how their employees interact with the outside world.

A simple telephone call from a blocked phone and a series of questions to people in various departments will yield a fast and effective way of determining current attitudes.

How many times have your called  ‘customer service’ and had someone in a hurry try to get you off the phone?

Or the human resources clerk who doesn’t listen to what you say, screams that she is not interested in you, or worse, before you have said a thing says she has ‘preferred vendors’. That has become an oxymoron as it usually means she is doing business with her friends. If she speaks to a total stranger like that, with no knowledge of who they are, who they know or what they do, how on earth does she behave with employees who require assistance, or heaven forbid, come for an interview?

The receptionist who answers the phone with ‘one moment’ and puts you on hold for 5 minutes to listen to bad music, comes back on the line, says ‘one moment’ again, puts you BACK on hold, without any consideration of who you are or where you are calling from……if your call is costing a fortune per minute, it is highly unlikely they will get your business.

Does anyone actually want to do business with a company who is so totally disrespectful..?

Then, of course, is my favourite. The phone solicitor who, upon having a female answer the phone, berates her, insists in a rude voice that he needs to speak with the President, and who exactly does this pathetic person think she is to question him?    Over the years, this is something which has happened to me a lot, as I answer the phone regularly, at all sorts of weird times, and inevitably find myself with one of these ‘treasures’ on the other end of the line. The call usually goes something like this, ‘may I help you?’ ‘What can I do to help you?”  “Could you please tell me the purpose of the call?” As the caller gets ruder and ruder and more belligerent and eventually barks that he wants the name of the ‘rude’ receptionist he is speaking with as he is going to report her to management.

Hello?    Seriously?    He just called and is speaking to a total stranger like that as he tries to elicit information?   Really? What planet does he come from?

Does this type of intimidation really work?

As the President of the company, it certainly makes for some interesting conversations ,but also ensures that we log the name of the individual and the company and ensure that we and our friends do not do business with this firm. Any firm who hires people that arrogant and disrespectful will never get any referrals or business.

Or another one of my favourites, the rude, snarling clerk in a store at the check-out counter,  when you have the audacity to wish to pay for merchandise which in turn pays for her salary. I mean, really, disturbing her very important conversation with a co-worker and having the gall to want to pay when she is in the middle of a conversation?

Or then there is the one who dismisses you because she doesn’t think you can afford to purchase the merchandise she is selling.

Then, of course, there is the truly condescending clerk who sniffles at you, and asks if you have any idea what you are looking at, removes it from your hands, and replaces it on the counter, as if you couldn’t possibly appreciate such a valuable piece.

Naturally, in Quebec, there is the never-ending language debate which ensures many clerks feel that their right to speak French supersedes the right of the PAYING client to be addressed in their language as they are paying for merchandise. On a couple of occasions, I have actually witnessed clerks criticizing  English clients , in French,  about the fact that we are in Quebec and everyone should be speaking French, and that they should go elsewhere.  In my case, interestingly, my French is inevitably better than theirs, and they have no idea that I understand every word coming out of their mouths.

How on earth do these people have jobs?

How can the owners of these businesses continue to employ them?

Are management really that ignorant of what is going on in their businesses?

The exercise of client relations is to ensure that the client is served in such a positive fashion that they want to come back to your establishment, not to tell 10 friends to never set foot into the shop.

All this makes for interesting and amusing anecdotes, but if no one is paying attention,  the competition is waiting out there with a smile on their face and multilingual staff to take your cash in a pleasant fashion.