Good Honest Dollar $$

In the modern business climate, manners and etiquette are a crucial aspect of maintaining a positive corporate reputation – especially in the course of handling difficult issues.

Good manners cost next to nothing. Yet a little courtesy goes a long way.

Last month in my neighborhood there was a perfect example of a situation which was handled poorly but could have easily been handled better with a little effort – much better.

The situation in question concerns the closure of the Croydon Market, a flea market which operates not far from my house in an undercover car park area adjacent to the Centro Croydon shopping centre.

PCL Prattcorp, which bought the shopping centre and the market site in May, closed the market last month, apparently citing concerns relating to insurance and safety (refer article).

 
A badly handled situation
This was never going to be an easy situation. The market opened in 1908 and has been operating in its present location since the end of World War I. Its closure was always going to be met with sadness. Not to mention the impact on stallholders, who depend on this market and other markets for their livelihood.

But what made things worse was PCL’s handling of the situation. Rather than being given advance notice of the closure, stallholders were not told at all. Instead, on Sunday June 28, they loaded up their gear and made the trip to market as normal, hoping for a good day of sales. (Some came from as far away as Horsham, four hours to the west, where markets had been held the previous day.) Alas, they arrived to find the gates closed and security guards turning them away. Their entire effort had been wasted. Worse still, those dealing in perishables were left with unsaleable stock.

Hardly any better was the company’s handling of the media. Enquiries from the Maroondah Leader, a local newspaper, were referred by PCL’s head office to management of the centre itself. Centre management, in turn, handballed those same queries back to head office. No one, it seems, wanted anything to do with this.

 
What should have happened
This situation could easily have been handled better with only a small amount of effort on the part of PCL.

Two simple steps would have gone a long way:

 
• Advance notice.

Giving stallholders advance notice of the closure would have been basic common courtesy.

Even a short period of notice – say, six weeks or even a month – may have enabled stallholders to arrange to set up at different markets in alternative locations, thereby minimising the disruption of the closure to their operations.

Advance notice would also have allowed them to clear unsold stock in the final weeks of trading.

(Even if safety concerns were a factor in the decision, as the company insists, the suddenness of the closure hardly seems necessary. The market has been operating in the same location without incident since World War I, surely it has not suddenly become so unsafe to the point of needing to be closed without advance notice.)

 
• Coordinated media strategy.

Given PCL’s size – it paid $31.5 million Australian dollars [$USD 26.5 million (approx)] for the centre – its absence of a strategy for handling media enquires is staggering.

It would not have been hard, for example, to prepare a short media statement about the closure. Nor would it have been difficult to arrange a designated contact point for media enquires. Yet either of these measures would have gone a long way toward making PCL look more professional.

(The company did make a media statement in the end. But that did not come until July 02 – almost a week after all the drama. Too little, too late.)

 
Simple steps, big impact
None of this would have been hard or costly. But better handling of the situation would have gone a long way toward enhancing PCL’s reputation.

Stallholders are businesspeople, and have a right to expect advance notice of decisions affecting their operations.

Moreover, the poor handling of this situation reflects badly upon PCL as a company, and this has adverse consequences for the company in terms of community reputation and staff morale. Pity. Even a little forethought on its part would have made a world of difference.

Etiquette and manners are essential when dealing with difficult situations.

Thoughtfulness and consideration hardly cost anything. But a few simple steps can go a long way.

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