So what happened to ‘Thank You’?

Just because we can connect with people in the blink of an eye doesn’t mean we should forget the basics.

I got an approach from someone who was interested in hiring my services. I replied to him. I never heard back (okay, so maybe he changed my mind, maybe I was too expensive, but I'll never know).

A reader emailed me agonising over a decision and asking for career advice. I gave her what I felt was valuable advice. And never heard back (even an email, saying my advice was crap would be better than nothing).

A business owner said he was seeking new people to work with and invited emails to him. I contacted him but never heard back.

I gave some career advice to a student over a coffee. And never got a follow-up 'thanks for your time'.

Sounds familiar?

Sure, we get busy. We change our minds. We don’t need that project, that advice, that supplier. Or we get swamped with feedback when we ask for it. But what happened to those two words -‘thank you’ ?

In this connected world the risk is that people fire off so many tweets, DMs and emails that they become undervalued and meaningless. Not just for individuals but also for brands and businesses. We forget the basics. And there really are no excuses. In our BlackBerry/ iPhone/ iPad ever-connected world, surely there’s 3 seconds for that ‘thank you’, even it’s a ‘thanks but no thanks’?