It is a good thing that I read Christopher Avery's article on presentation and client perception (see [2003] Gazette, 14 August, 14).

As he puts it, 'corporate identity [is]...

whether you should have a reception table and chairs at all, as it implies that you cannot manage your schedule well enough to be on time for an appointment'.

Now I know where I have been going wrong.

For years I have been labouring under the misapprehension that my reception area was a place where my clients, some of whom travel a couple of hundred miles, can relax before going through the exciting experience of a meeting with me.

I now know it would be far better if anyone failing to organise such a journey with military precision, and having the audacity to arrive early, were forced to remain standing.

Tanel Kagan, Kagan & Co, Lewisham, London