Brad Huisken

What Happened To Common Courtesy?
March 12, 2008

Whatever happened to manners and common courtesy? I remember when people were actually friendly to one another. I even remember when you would walk into a business and would be greeted with a friendly “hello”. There was even a time when a salesperson would answer a question in a caring manner. Whatever happened to those days?

Going into the majority of restaurants you are greeted with something like; “Two? Come this way” or “Two for dinner? It will be an hour do you wanna wait? Very rarely a “Hello, How are you? Thank you for coming in.” Just a little simple common courtesy is all I am asking.

I was in a shoe store the other day and an elderly woman asked the salesperson, (a term I am using very liberally right now) “Would you mind punching an addition hole in the strap on my sandals?” To which the salesperson answered, “Well you are going to have to take them off first.” Shouldn’t he have said something like “I would be happy to, would you mind slipping them off for me?” At the very least common manners would have him answering the question without some rude retort. In another store I waited over 15 minutes for someone to acknowledge my very existence, much less try to assist me. I even went as far as to sit in a chair and start to skim through the salespersons’ paper that had been sitting on the counter. Then I picked up a brochure on the products they sell and still no acknowledgement.

Look closely at yourself and how you are greeting, acknowledging and answering questions. It is very easy to fall into a trap of being average with so much mediocrity surrounding us. I know a warm friendly greeting will go a lot farther than the opposite. I also know that the attitude, spirit, enthusiasm and sales of the warm, friendly and courteous individual will be considerably higher. 
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Posted by Brad Huisken on March 12, 2008 | Comments (0)