Poll: Are you on a first-name basis with most or all of your clients? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are you on a first-name basis with most or all of your clients?".
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I live in California. Californians are on first-name basis with everyone. Even doctors! It has been this way for decades, and I see that the trend is drifting eastward.
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With most of my clients I’m on a first-name basis, but it depends on the client’s nationality. Francophone people tend to be more formal at first and then change quickly to a more informal tone. My long-standing Belgian client still calls me Mme Borges though we have been nurturing a beautiful (business) relationship of over 20 years…
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With most clients I'm on first-name terms. A few, especially the French, are more formal and always address me (and I them) as Madame (or Monsieur). I follow the client's lead regarding the degree of formality.
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While first-name basis is rather unusual in Germany except for actual friends, it seems to be the standard in the agencies I am working with (only one of my agencies is located in Germany). When I meet someone online, I normally mirror the way they are addressing me, so if they address me as Kay-Viktor, I will address them as Jill or Jack. (And they get extra points if they do not misspell my first name and if they realize I'm a guy ... See more While first-name basis is rather unusual in Germany except for actual friends, it seems to be the standard in the agencies I am working with (only one of my agencies is located in Germany). When I meet someone online, I normally mirror the way they are addressing me, so if they address me as Kay-Viktor, I will address them as Jill or Jack. (And they get extra points if they do not misspell my first name and if they realize I'm a guy ▲ Collapse
| | | | EvaVer (X) 
Local time: 21:48
Czech to French
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I live in Eastern Europe, where this is not normal practice in business relations. So not with my local clients, yes with most foreign clients. As my family name is complicated, some of my local clients call me the equivalent of "Mrs. Eva", which is rather ridiculous. But I don't call them by their first names.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 16:48
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Yes, all of them | Dec 25, 2018 |
The only clients or potential clients that ever call me Mr. Freitas are a few that do not know me yet, i.e. on a first contact (very rare, though). This type of formality surely does not help the relationship at all. I always try to become less formal and a bit more friendly, and it works well every time. The raltionship becomes a lot better, as well as troubleshooting, once you drop the Mr., Mrs., Dr., and the like. First name ends up being efficient and productive, as opposed to the formality.
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