Like so many others, I make a trip each morning to my favorite local spot to get a cup of coffee before work.  At this point in my day, I’m awake and coherent enough to operate my vehicle though one squinting eye, order my beverage and little else.  When I request my daily cup of caffeine, I rely on the person behind the counter to give me a bit of courtesy in my first true social interaction of the day, and – sadly – I’m still occasionally faced with the absence of a simple “Thank You.”

Luckily, my usual place very rarely misses this pleasantry, but that makes it all the more obvious when it isn’t there.  “No ‘thank you?’  Really?  I’m giving you my business – my money – every morning, and I can’t get a ‘thanks?’”

When we don’t hear those two words in our day-to-day transactions out in the world, it affects us – our mood, our outlook.  Yet every day, we have clients submit content where the “Thank You” text is rushed, an afterthought, or forgotten altogether.  That kind of customer service doesn’t fly in brick and mortar business; it should be no surprise that it fails on the web, too. [Read more...]