The Importance of Manners in Business

Every now and again, I am reminded of how important manners are in business. I've written about this when it comes to emailing in particular before, but I think manners in general are often side-stepped in a corporate setting (at least in my experience). Sure we work with people day in and day out, and we basically live with our co-workers and/or clients 5 days a week. We're all human and we can all get agitated by someone's habits every now and then. But what happened to common courtesies?

In the article "Good Manners Are Good For Business" by The Business Journal's author Eileen Brill Wagner, she states that "...in a study conducted by etiquette consultants Eticon Inc., 80 percent of the respondents reported an increase of rudeness in business. When they encounter rudeness, 58 percent of the people surveyed said they will take their business elsewhere." That's a lot of people that are taking notice of manners in the workplace.

In the very informative and (wonderfully designed) e-book Manners Matter by Joel D. Canfield, Joel states "If the only time your best manners surface is when you’re taking a customer’s cash, it’s fairly obvious where your real interests lie." I thought this statement was so powerful and so true. To check out his e-book, click here.

Sorry if this post is coming off as preachy; that's the last thing I want to communicate. I do think that we could all be reminded from time to time, though, that the way we conduct ourselves ultimately affects our bottom lines, thus the success of our businesses.