Do you....

1. Tell a client to come see you "at 2pm", only to be found "out at lunch" when s/he arrives at exactly 2pm?

2. Tell your client to "drop in anytime tomorrow" only to be told that you are "away on leave for the next two weeks"? 

3. Also make no effort to handover the clients case to a colleague or to brief anyone as to progress made with particular client before you depart for leave?

4. Promise to deliver by a certain day/time, then fail to do so. Keep promising to deliver; "by noon tomorrow" when your client calls to follow up late in the day, then "by close of business" when s/he calls at noon, then "by noon tomorrow" when s/he calls late in the day...etc for the 5/7/10/12 days it takes you to actually deliver.

5. Suddenly introduce new names in conversations with the client that you were dealing with when YOUR client gets annoyed that things didn't go right? (eg "I know I am the one who took your TT order but Bob is the one who actually sends the TT's and he seems to have forgotten to do so in this case....Let me follow up with Bob and get back to you". Do you do this knowing full well that YOUR client has never heard of this Bob before, has never met him or dealt with him in any way prior to that moment?)

If your answer to any/all of these questions is "Yes", please share with me why you do so. 

- Were you never trained otherwise? 

- Was this part of your customer relationship training? 

- Is this your attitude to all your customers or just the 'unimportant' ones?

- Do your bosses know that this is the practice within their organizations? 

- Do they accept this as "normal"? 

- Do you accept this as "normal" by your own personal standards?

Customers... Do these practices annoy/irritate/frustrate you too? Any others that I have overlooked?