Result” Receiving a standardised mailshot from a company you are already using. One side-effect of bureaucracy is that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. There is so much form-filling for the sake of it. It is incredible that so many companies will not take your money without an official purchase order because their system can’t cope without the relevant number?, says one company director. It is estimated that ten per cent of a business person’s life is taken up with needless bureaucracy. Tie them up with bureaucracyīureaucracy is both the bedfellow and enemy of business. And for goodness sake, if you ask someone in for a lunchtime get-together, at least offer them a cup of coffee. Here are some things you shouldn’t do if you want to keep your customers: Missing meetings is unforgivable, as is forgetting that someone is coming to see you don’t cancel, at four hours’ notice, meetings that were set up weeks in advance don’t have a chat on your mobile phone during a meeting. According to our respondents, an astonishing number of business people forget the basic rules of behaviour. The client says that you’ll hear on Friday, and, of course, when it comes to it they are too embarrassed to tell you that you haven’t got it. “The worst is when you are waiting to hear if you have won a piece of business,” says David Bailey, co-founder of Impact Plus, acquired by Hitachi Consulting. Too often suppliers over-promise and under-deliver. There was a consensus on one depressing feature of business life: people who say they will call in a few days or send information and don’t. All too often, however, promises are broken. The business people we spoke to want to be honourable and would like, in return, to be treated with honesty. People who aren’t concerned about time are a major irritation. Otherwise your diary should be organised in such a way that it works.
If someone is stuck on the M25 and you can hear that they’re on the carphone, fair enough.
There are very few reasons for being late. Martin Randerson, former managing director of The Travel Professionals, won’t do business with people who are late for meetings – ?unless they have got a really good excuse. It’s rude, it wastes everyone’s time, and it’s easily avoided by using a diary. Almost all the people we questioned mentioned it. Some people even think that legislation would have little effect. Late payment also appears to have become an everyday fact of business life. No matter how carefully you nurture a relationship with another company, it seems, it’s becoming ever more difficult to get them to pay on time and with good grace. And if you want to remain in business, don’t write worthless cheques. Almost all our respondents mentioned them. Payment problems are a blight on business life. Across the UK, companies are damaging their customer relations by replacing receptionists and telephonists with time-wasting, irritating, tedious, answering machines. Across the board, telephones are driving business people crazy. Do you get asked to hold only to remain stranded on the end of a silent line Like many business people, advisor Shelia McKenzie sets aside Monday mornings for paperwork, only to be bombarded by people wanting to know whether their letter has arrived. Of all the bugbears in business, the front-runner is voicemail.
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