Minding manners a boon for business - The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

CAROL FLETCHER, STAFF WRITER
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
11-01-2009

Minding manners a boon for business -- Etiquette focus is on building relationships
By CAROL FLETCHER, STAFF WRITER
Date: 11-01-2009, Sunday
Section: BUSINESS
Column: SMALL BUSINESS
Biographical: NANCY GORCZYNSKI

Business communication has become way too casual, says Nancy Gorczynski.

The Texas native believes there is a lack of professionalism in how executives introduce themselves, write e-mails, dine during working lunches and handle customers. So she created a business to train them.

"Everything is completely based on the relationships you have" in business, said Gorczynski, who founded The Etiquette and Protocol School in Wayne in 2001. "Building trust and relationships those basics are your lifeline."

For instance, Gorczynski says, how do new colleagues, potential clients or employers perceive you when you take their business card and put it away without reading it?

Probably as someone not interested in any details about them, she says. But if you were to look at the card first, make eye contact, repeat their name to know if you are saying it correctly and then ask them a question or two, you are showing them something quite different.

"It certainly lets people know you"re interested, paying attention and that you care," she said. "You are secretly building your character through someone else"s eyes."

As early as childhood Gorczynski learned the basics of building relationships with customers from her father, who, as president of several community banks in Texas, made her serve hot dogs to the public at his banks every Saturday.

After graduating from Texas A&M University, Gorczynski worked in sales, marketing and public communications jobs. She convinced shoppers to visit a local hospital"s new branch clinic that opened in a shopping mall in order to draw in more customers.

Gorczynski learned how to work with international businesses by training manufacturer representatives from Hawaii, Chile, China, Germany and Thailand, and learned how to sell the products for her employer, a valve maker in Houston.

After getting married and moving to New Jersey, Gorczynski received certification from The Protocol School of Washington in Washington, D.C., in corporate etiquette, international protocol and children"s etiquette before starting her business.

To gain exposure in her first years, she gave presentations on business etiquette at local chambers of commerce and Rotary Club meetings and their trade shows as well as at universities.

Her first job was for Bergen County"s largest law firm, Cole Schotz Meisel Foreman & Leonard in Hackensack, which hired her to train legal secretaries and receptionists on phone etiquette to step up its public image, she said.

At one of the business groups" trade shows, she met the vice president of Tiffany & Co."s store in The Mall at Short Hills, who hired her for sales and customer service training at its corporate center in Manhattan.

The job led to one of her repeat customers and the owner of the Short Hills shopping center, The Taubman Co., which hired her to develop a protocol on handling customers for their guest services staff.

Dressed in matching gray suits, with name pins and their own business cards, the guest services employees are the public face of the mall and their job duties are getting more varied, said Leigh Esposito, guest services manager.

The staff sells gift cards, handles customer complaints, orders concert and event tickets for shoppers, makes hotel and dinner reservations, calls taxis, lends out baby and dog strollers and fields phone calls from the public.

Gorczynski developed a workbook on communications, phone etiquette, juggling multiple customers simultaneously, and better ways to help clients such as giving out maps.

"It"s made us more aware of what they [the staff] are doing what they say and how they say it," said Esposito.

Among other customers, Gorczynski"s corporate jobs have included training American Express"s travel and global development department in Manhattan on corporate entertaining and customer service training for Bergen Jaguar in Paramus.

Colleges and universities are another type of customer, said Gorczynski. At William Paterson University in Wayne, she trains students on business behavior and networking.

Gorczynski also trains executives preparing to do business globally on the intricacies of international protocol. Clients include a former broker/director with Merrill Lynch & Co., who left to start an enterprise matching Chinese venture capitalists with Chinese start-ups. Gorczynski wrote for him a 120-page report with 75 topics on China.

The briefing and 10-hour training session broke down Chinese culture, politics, geography and subcultures revolving around religion, geography, business titles and hierarchies and mannerisms such as hand-shaking, she said.

Without training, "you can insult a person from another culture in seconds and it can take months, if ever, to correct it," Gorczynski said.

Electronic communication has become so casual that Gorczynski includes it in her basic etiquette training. She reminds employees that e-mail is permanent, that they should write e-mails as letters, avoid abbreviations, icons of faces or symbols, use spellcheck and not to use e-mails to avoid personal contact.

Gorczynski said future projects will include training guest services staff at other malls owned by The Taubman Co.

"What I teach is the foundation of all business ethics and successful relationships," said Gorczynski.

***

(SIDEBAR)

The Etiquette & Protocol School, Wayne

Founded: 2001

Owner: Nancy Gorczynski

Employees: Gorczynski, who hires freelancers for copyediting, publicity and Web site work

Revenue: Less than $75,000

Web site: etiquetteanswers.com

Advice: Gorczynski says relationships are fundamental to doing business successfully and the foundation is business etiquette intelligence. Those relationships are built upon actions, not words or e-mail, she says. "Commit the time necessary to demonstrate your character to employers and co-workers."

***

E-mail: fletcher@northjersey.com

***

Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - DON SMITH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER - Nancy Gorczynski, second from right, developed a workbook for The Mall at Short Hills guest services staff.
Keywords: ETIQUETTE, TRAINING, BUSINESS

Copyright 2009 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.