Professionalism Part 1: Don’t Call your Clients Cuzzi!
The other day my husband was chatting over the phone to a salesman from a local car dealership and in ending the conversation, the salesman casually said “cheers cuzzi“. Cheers Cuzzi? My husband is pretty chilled out so he just laughed about it but I’m sure there would be plenty of Dom-Pérignon-type-customers who wouldn’t be too charmed about the chummy-chummy attitude. I’m not saying that you can’t be humorous, friendly or personable – I’m just saying that you should try and avoid mixing slang expressions into business discussions:
“Lekker doing business with you bru”
OR
“I’ll email the quote to you tomorrow Cuzzi”
OR
“Howzit China, how can I help you?”
OR
“You’ll smaak this car”
These are no-no’s! Keep it professional – people take you more seriously that way.
And what would they say to “squeezel” or “squeeza”?
I’ve heard people call total strangers that — See here
Hi Steve, thanks for your comment! Well in South Africa, a squeeza or squeeze is a slang term for girlfriend or boyfriend. I have never heard the word Squeezel before. My advice is that if there is any possibility that the word could be considered slang, rather not use it in a business/formal setting. In South Africa, people often call strangers “My Bru” or “My China” which is fine but in business dealings with people, I would consider that unprofessional.
I couldn’t agree more. I do believe in getting to know your clients and being friendly with them, but there’s a line and you should never cross that line!
my all time not so favourite is…….”shot boetie” pronounced somewhere between booty and boerie (as in boerewors roll)….phonecalls ending like that usually have me in a quiet monologue involving extraordinary amounts of expletives delicately pointing out the fact that I am not his boetie / boerie/brah/china etc etc……grrrrrr. not cool BOETIE
Heh heh heh! I haven’t heard that one in a while! I had two total strangers yesterday calling me “my honey” and “my love” over the phone. I had the same inner monologue going on…grrrrr!
I’m generally a very “chatty” person. I do a lot of telesales work, so I am constantly aware of how I speak to clients (especially since most of mu clients are other businesses). One can easily get distracted when the client uses slang – What’s the best way to “fit in” with the client? Perhaps drop one or two “formal/decent/respectful slangy” words?
Thanks for your comment Charles. Instead of using slang I’d rather try and establish a rapport with someone by discovering a common interest ie. sport and you’ll only establish that by talking to the person and by just being friendly. Using slang especially with someone over the phone just sounds “too familar” and can be off-putting for some.
[...] Part 1: Don’t Call Your Clients Cuzzi! [...]
[...] Know the name of the person you are meeting with and then don’t forget it. You should also avoid terms of endearment such as shortening the person’s name or calling them “my love” or “cuzzi“. [...]