Can You Afford What Rudeness Is Costing Your Business?
Maybe you’re sick of the high cost of your company's rude staff. It might be time to admit that your company not only doesn't have time for manners, but also that it's missing out on a lot more than it realizes.
The good news is, improving workplace etiquette doesn't require an overhaul. After understanding what rudeness costs, you'll realize just how simple and easy it is to make those small tweaks in behavior that lead to better business performance — with less headaches too! In this blog post, we will reveal what each one of these costly situations entails and how they can be avoided by using some common sense.
Top 5 Reasons for Rudeness to Cost Your Company
The first reason for rudeness to cost your company is that by constantly offending clients and employees, you are effectively telling them over and over again that their needs or opinions aren't worth hearing. You simply cannot afford to be rude in any setting.
It's one thing to say "in our business, we don't have time for clients who want something done yesterday" or "we don't have the resources at this moment in time." But it's another matter entirely when you use words like "stupid," "idiot," or even more damning language such as "dumb" or "fool." Why? Because those words all carry implied insult.
Let's consider an obvious example: "There's no point in wasting time on this because I don't have time to do it."
The word "waste" carries a sense of wastefulness — as if you are blowing money on something you don't need, or even could afford. You can put that same thought into a word like "fool," but with the added implications of being so foolish or ridiculous that it doesn't make any sense — in short, stupid.
What makes people say those kinds of things? Some aspect of rude behavior that we've been taught to say or hear from our parents and older siblings.
The bottom line: You'll never get your point across if you say things like that.
Now, if you really want to throw your staff for a loop about the importance of client relationships, take a look at the last paragraph of this transcript of an interview with Jeff Bezos in The New York Times Magazine. The interviewer is poking around at the key to success at Amazon and asks our now fabled founder: "What do customers not know that they ought to know?"
So what did Bezos say? After noting that customers don't realize the complexity of their own needs, he added that "I find myself trying to invent new words to describe ideas because so few words actually mean what they seem. 'Unmet needs' is a good example."
If you think that's weird or should be highly self-reflective, then you know what kind of client morale is at Amazon.
While there are several other reasons for rudeness to cost your business (below), remember that the last one is the most important because it goes beyond your customer relationships to affect how your staff feels about the entire company, thus affecting their ability to bring the best efforts to any project. Figure out how rude you are by making a list of what "stupid" or, even worse for many people, "idiot" means in various parts of your enterprise as well as in your community and culture.
The second reason rudeness to cost your business is that you're telling your employees over and over again that they're not important to you or that they don't matter. You must remember that in every workplace, people are psychologically a part of the team. And as much as you may see them as paid professionals, for many people, getting a paycheck is just one of the many ways to become a part of a team.
In fact, according to Fortune magazine: "Relationships aren’t only key; they’re vital."
It's no wonder then why rudeness can cause so many issues with staff productivity and morale.
Fortunately, the third reason rudeness to cost your business is that you're failing to realize how much it costs your company in terms of lost money and productivity. According to a research report from human resources software company Practical People, "A rude manager can waste four hours or more of an employee's time each day."
In fact, a study from the University of Alabama found that "interpersonal skills can amount to an annual $11,562 in productivity gain for each worker who is able to make a colleague or a boss feel valued."
How do you know if you have too many rude employees? You know it when you are talking about work with one person and all of a sudden the topic changes. Although the rude employee was the one who brought up the subject, it's as if everyone else stopped listening.
The fourth reason rudeness to cost your business is that your staff will not come to you first with their questions, so you have to rely on their co-workers for information. And what if a co-worker is also rude? Well, then your staff will be left in a very uncomfortable situation.
Here's another example — imagine that one of your employees is in a meeting and makes a comment about something that's inappropriate for the group and he or she doesn't realize it. A co-worker who is worried about making a good impression comments that the comment is inappropriate. What's the first thing that rude employee says? "Well, you know how some people are…" The co-worker then interrupts and tries to get the point across: "No, it really isn't appropriate."
Then, that rude employee gets angry at the co-worker for cutting him off and starts asking questions: "Why do you say things like that if it's not appropriate? I would think no one would want to do something like I said in front of them, right?"
Why is this so wrong? Because the interaction shows us that the rude employee believes he's right. He certainly feels that he's more right and important than the co-worker — yet not only is the co-worker right, his words that show how rude the employee is are even more embarrassing, but they're actually memorable. The rude employee comes to you with a story that reflects on your company because of what he said, and now he's complaining because he doesn't get his way on a matter.
As I mentioned in this blog post about being a good manager: "The worst thing that can happen when you have conflict within your team is for one person to believe she's right about something and be able to convince others of her point of view. No one benefits from this type of conflict. It's a waste of everyone's time and energy. And your team members now won't trust her in the future."
And, finally, the fifth reason rudeness to cost your business is that management has no idea that it's costing them business. And what if management doesn't have a clue? What if they're saying rude things to clients as well as to their employees? Then you've got yourself a real mess on your hands.
In fact, according to Fortune magazine: "We all know that establishing strong relationships with clients is key to business success. But I was still surprised when an industrial psychologist at Wharton told me he sees rudeness as one of the top five or six causes of poor client relationships.
Conclusion:
So how do you prevent staff from being rude?
Here are eight things you can do:
1. Consider everything your team does or says as representing your company. Have your team members sign off on their work by putting the company's name at the bottom of it.
2. Make sure that you are the most polite person in the room and that everyone else knows it. If they don't know it, then just ask them to repeat what they said so that it is inferred by those present. Do this even if someone cares less about how polite he or she is being — especially when someone feels comfortable enough to be rude to you (as opposed to merely being annoyed with something).