Mandatory courtesy
Houghton, William
THE LAST WORD MANDATORY COURTESY William Houghton Not too long ago, I bought a new car (Brand X) from a major manufacturer in Wisconsin. I believe I was sold by the merits of the car....
...And are there not other detrimental effects...
...A woman with a thick Southern accent, impenetrable at times, was calling from Dallas to ask how the purchase of my new car had gone...
...Let's call him John...
...He told me the car was "just like a Porsche," though I knew they wouldn't give it to me for one-third the price if it were...
...In the old days, you could hate your boss up close and personal, but work out some understanding with him...
...I wasn't going to betray John, now that I saw the web he was caught in...
...I thanked her for calling, and the manufacturer for its concern about quality...
...William Houghton, M.D...
...The substance of Brand X's relation with me seemed to be the two principles of business ingrained in the souls of all M.B.A.s: First, a pleasing appearance is everything (certainly in advertising, but equally here in scripted behavior...
...He then introduced me to the other salesmen as "a GT buyer," although I had deliberately picked a lower horsepower version...
...In short, a blowhard who read me poorly...
...I replied fine, as indeed it was...
...Now the manager is remote and untouchable...
...Next day, John duly called and asked how the car was...
...None at all, I said, they were both superb...
...But don't coercing procedures and manners lead to perfunctory behavior and palpable smarm, making relations fake...
...Personally, I'd rather buy a car from an individual human, whether honest or conniving, who answers to a boss on the spot, and from a dealership that has been in one place for at least five years...
...she asked...
...Two days later I received a phone call from a national telemarketing survey company...
...He didn't seem to know a lot about the vehicle in question but nonetheless spoke in a glib and pompous manner...
...I had researched it in Consumer Reports, driven several models, had talked with friends and my expert daughter...
...Those are community resources that are becoming hard to find in a global economy...
...and second, managers at higher levels can enforce courtesy and helpfulness on their underlings...
...She hurried along, probably knowing how many customers object or hang up, and raced through the thirty questions scrolling down her monitor, sounding bored and irritable herself...
...This kind of "quality control" is widespread now, in both manufacturing and the service industries, and I suppose it allows central managers to feel they are doing their jobs properly...
...It is not hard to see how John, or any worker in a similar situation, might develop a degree of paranoia, and under the threat of invisible surveillance put on a veneer of courtesy and helpfulness...
...and (2) superiors can make you act a certain way, but they can't make you be a certain way...
...This gentleman was about sixty, had been a car salesman for many years, and was full of good cheer and over-familiarity...
...practices psychiatry in Milwaukee...
...Will someone call me in a few days to ask how this interview went...
...Then he gave me the keys and the traditional pat on the butt: "Let me know if there's anything else I can do," and broke my heart when he added, "Be sure to tell them I did a good job when the company calls...
...Is the information obtained reliable, or do many people, like me, answer quickly to shorten the call...
...If they are interested in the long view, managers ought to consider two other principles: (1) What is genuine and comes from the heart is better than facade or mere good manners...
...We set the delivery hour, I signed the papers, handed over the check, and John "checked me out on the controls," vaguely pointing to the CD knobs and the steering wheel...
...At that point I saw John as the anxious third-grader that he is—at least in this situation—and I hastened to tell him that he had done an excellent job, that it was a wonderful car, the service was superior, etc...
...Commonweal 31 April 23,1999...
...It certainly wasn't the salesman at the dealership who sold me...
...And I didn't want to offend the telephone surveyor either, who clearly had a lousy job...
...I stood up staunchly for John, praising his salesmanship, expert knowledge, and testified in particular that he had shown me the controls and called back the next day...
...In retrospect, I can see how some of his fear and anger were leaking out in his slightly phony manner with me...
...John forgot to call me a couple of times, got the specs and price figures jumbled, but I knew what I wanted and stuck with it anyhow...
...Could he or the agency make any improvement...
...Might not global telecommunications lead to global snitching, destroying trust all round...
...But does it really add to quality...
Vol. 126 • April 1999 • No. 8
