Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-03-23
MUCH in LETTERS
SHOWING IMPORTANCE OF RusI-
NESS CORRESPONDING
In These Days of Fierce Competition
the Man of Affairs Knows He
Cannot Afford to Offend
Correspondents.

ITO be sure said the business
man, lin writing letters we always en-
deavor to make them satisfactory to
those to whom we write; but if posi-
bile we should be more than ever care
ful to do this in writing to correspond
ents whom we may have occasion to
address but once
You see persons to whom we are
writing frequently come to know us,
and they judge us by what we are and
make due allowances for the lapses or
Incidental shortcomings inseparable
from the conduct of any business; but
the person to whom we may have oc-
casion to write but once judges US by
that identical letter, by which, in his
or her estimation, we stand or fall
IF to such correspondent we send
a brusque letter it may wound or Of
fend, and the person receiving it will
keep away from us thereafter if he
can; whereas, if we send him polite
and well considered letter, one in
spired evidently by desiSe to be
courteous. the recipient will be pleased
and his disposition will be friendly.
so when we have occasion to write
a letter, perhaps the first we have
ever written to a customer, and keep
ing in mind that we may never have
occasion to write another, we give
thought to the impression it is sure to
make for good or i'll and endeavor to
make it one that shall please. 1t may
be about a very slight transaction, in
vo1ving an amount so small that what
with the time and labor we bestow
upon it we shall come out at a loss.
But we don't take that into account
at all. What we want is to have this
customer know and believe that we
are endeavoring faithfully to treat him
with fairness and courtesy. We want
to keep him, not to drive him away.
I'VE may lose on this individual
transaction with him, but it isn't this
transaction alone that we must have
in mind. Many good customer who
might otherwise have quit has been
saved and kept as customer and
made a friend of by one sound and
polite letter written when the occas-
ion arose.
And we certainly want friends. If
we depended for trade solely on peo-
pie who came and bought something
once, but never again, we shouldn't do
much business. What we want is to
hold all the customers We can, to keep
them and to build up trade to which
we can add that transient custom, and
we certainly never do want to drive
away customer by writing to him an
impatient or careless letter.
AN interesting thing about the
writing of polite, considerable and
thoughtful business letters is found in
their reaction on the writer. Even if
he has ben writing such letters from
business reasons only he will soon
find himself imbued with their spirit
he will come to find as much satisfac-
ton in writing them as the persons
addressed do in receiving them. In
short, if he were not already so, he
will find himself sincerely DESTROYS of
being polite, considerate and obliging
and in this he will have made more
than one long step ahead, for as he is
SO will his subordinates come to be.
They will take their cue from him.
and how much they can mar or help
him, BY them is his i'll or his good
fortune increased and multiplied.
Truly it is good seed, wherever
sowed, the really good business letter,
and it is fruitful in proportion to the
amount of seed scattered, when sowed
in the minc of the customer to whom
you may have occasion to write but
once"