Lately there’s been an annoying increase in the number of people who aren’t friends of mine but insist on addressing me as “mate”.
Now I don’t mind being “mate” to my friends (in fact it’s almost a term of endearment) but I do object to being addressed as mate when I am a prospect, customer or new acquaintance. And it’s not because of my age, it’s because of something called good manners. Y’know that old fashioned concept of politeness and respect? In business the correct way to address me is “Mister” or “Sir” if you don’t know me or by my name if you know it. It is not “mate” on first acquaintance.
And please, observe the same rule for females and please don’t call ladies “mate”. They are “madam,” “Miss,” “Miz” or “Missus.”
Mate implies a degree of friendship or familiarity and when I’m your customer it’s up to me to decide when I want to get that familiar with you.
So use the right term until you’re given permission to change the way you address me. And apart from that it’s just plain polite to get it right.
I think it depends on context. Ive been called mate from total strangers, but I just see it as regard to the type of person or their background, or the setting when it happened. Naturally, in the business setting, its always good to stay a bit more formal. And for me, I don’t use the term ‘mate’ as much as other people do. But its a good topic to raise, I will listen to how many times I hear the word mate over the next week.
Thanks David, and as I said to Stevo, it would be worth testing out the result of the different approaches.
Your kidding, “Sir” or “Mister” in this day and age. “Sir” maybe for children talking to a teacher at school. Sounds like a dose of oldfartitis, or Grumpy Old Man syndrome if being called mate by people who don’t know you that well, upsets you. Could be worse things to be called, that’s for sure, hey “tiger”, “champ”. Being called mate, regardless of whether a close friend or someone you have just met, to me is more about being Australian than anything else. Plus it’s a great filler if you forget someone’s name. So sorry mate, have to disagree with you on this one 😉
Happy for you to disagree of course. Interesting thing would be to test and measure results in a sales situation and see what approach worked the best.
Agreed Winno… good manners are an essential starting point to creating a good connection with others …. including prospective clients
Yep, and I’ve discovered Julie Lamberg-Burnet from the Sydney School of Protocol who trains people on etiquette and I’ll be interviewing her for my program soon.