Lesson XII Business Etiquette
Business etiquette. Your duty to your customer requires you to treat them with respect, to do the work to the best of your ability, to give them the best work of your head and hands, and to treat your customers with politeness to show a disposition to please and be a lady or gentleman at all times.
Be independent, but not impertinent.
Do your best to please your customers. Never promise to have garments finished at a given time unless you intend to have them finished at the time promised, and never disappoint a customer if it can possibly be avoided.
Never misrepresent. A reputation for integrity is of almost or quite as much value in your business as a reputation for skill and taste.
Your most valuable customers are refined ladies and gentlemen; you will do well therefore to bear in mind that gentlemen love gentlemen.
Do not breathe in a customer’s face.
Dress well, and let your linen be clean; your garments kept well cleaned, pressed and repaired.
Your appearance is a part of your capital in the way of getting business.
When you have garments that have been ready for customers one month, notify them, saying that you will hold them for thirty days longer. Say that in the meantime you wish they would call for them.