Customer Service is Everything

My Wife and I decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out for our anniversary last week. We went to a great Steak place here in town. I made a reservation ahead of time (online) and mentioned it was for our anniversary in the notes section. From the moment we walked in, they called us by first names and congratulated us on our 21st anniversary. We were escorted to a table and asked if we preferred white or black napkins for our laps. Our hostess was courteous and prompt in taking our order once she realized we already knew what we wanted. The waitstaff frequently came by and made sure our drinks were filled without interrupting our conversation. When we were out of bread, they brought more. Our Steak was cooked as we requested. The Manager came by to make sure all was to our liking and congratulated us, by name, on our anniversary. When we mentioned we had time commitment, our desert was packed up and delivered to our table. The next day we received a thank you card from the restaurant.

Contrast that to the amount of times I have felt like I was actually bothering the person behind the fast-food counter when I dared to interrupt their obviously deep conversation with a co-worker about last night's monster-truck rally, only to have my order only slightly resemble what I requested. To top it off, I had to go back and ask for Ketchup, since the dispenser was empty.

Customer Service makes the difference and I have repeatedly stopped supporting establishments that made me feel like a burden.

Over the past year, I watched as my clients had to endure longer than accustomed delays in my ability to fulfill their requests, poor follow-up on post-sales issues and a general degradation in the personal attention I was able to give my clients.

I am not a wine 'em and dine'em expert. I do my share of entertaining, but I pride myself on EXECUTION and attention to detail, taking away the difficulties of dealing with large organizations. I make it a point to turn customer requests within 48 hours and to always, always thank them for their business.

I made attempts to help solve the internal issues that caused my clients pain, involving other departments and management, making suggestions and even changing the way I do business. In the end, I was told that "this is the way we have always run the business and we see no reason to change it."

When the organization you work for becomes a liability instead of an asset and begins to damage your hard-earned reputation, and you've made every effort to help resolve the internal quagmire that sometimes exists, it's time to declare your independence and state your grievances and finally sever ties.

I work too hard on my reputation and will not let inefficiency and apathy cause me or my clients prolonged grief.

Creativity and Security

Last month, in an effort to make contact with a "hard-to-reach" client, I packaged up a trac phone with a cryptic message to expect a call at 5 pm sharp the following Monday. I failed to note that the following Monday was President's day holiday. Whoops! No one but security at the Bank that day and a non-descript manila envelope tends to get attention when it has no return address and has electronics inside it.

By the time the target had returned from Holiday, security had full possession of my creative calling-card. There was no way I was going to make contact with him....especially after Homeland Security gets a call from the Bank where I sent it.

I received a call from the Bank's Head of Security shortly afterwards. After a brief interrogation, he sceptically began to believe my story. They tracked me down by way of the only number still in the phone call history.

Then I got the phone call I was wanting in the first place. The Client was laughing his head-off and asking me if I wanted a full-body cavity search with that phone.

While an occasional creative contact method may be required, make sure you think through the logistics and possible consequences first.

I have learned an important lesson this week. Note to Self!

Sometimes, Timing is Everything

Have you ever been on one of those Sales Calls where you were just "In the Zone"? Nothing could go wrong, no objection was to difficult, the right people were present, your presentation was perfect and the deal just kept getting bigger?

I was "In the Zone"! The room was full and there were more on the conference line from around the globe. We all shook hands and agreed to the follow up actions items (most of them were mine). I thought we had just landed one of the largest accounts in the Mountain States.

I went back to the (home) office and proceeded to make calls and bang out emails attaching reference customer contact info and setting up a test plan that just could not fail. I sent out White Papers and Case Studies. After all that work I put in a follow up call and sent a thank you card.

Days and then weeks went by with almost no response from this key account. When I finally made contact I got the cold-shoulder treatment and was told that they were just too busy with other projects right now and would not be able to take a look at my product until next year. :(

What a let down! A complete Crash and Burn! I had been sidelined, benched and then asked to leave the stadium.

I occasionally shot a note over and called the prospect, but never got more than a one sentence reply that he still did not have time to take another look.

Last week...the next year mark, I began the full-court press again, calling on key partners and contacts to get me back in to that key account. Success! We had a meeting. The partner however, kept warning me that the reception was going to be luke-warm at best and perhaps even frigid. I expected the worst.

When we arrived, we were escorted to a medium sized conference room and told to sit tight. There were 2-3 people already in the room. As we got settled, a few more showed up, then more and finally we ran out of chairs. We were asked to recap what we had discussed last time and give a basic overview of our solution for the new people. As soon as we got in to the meat of the presentation, more people filed in and we had standing room only. Questions were flying and we were challenged on a few statements asking for more information. The pace was fast and furious with people from all relevant areas of the company present. Along the way we figured out that the customer's pain had reached critical mass and timing was much better than last time. It had suddenly moved up the priority list of things to address.

I have since followed up as I always do with a definite plan and plan on making the call today to make sure we are still on track. More to follow........

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

I just had to share a recent conspiracy against me by my own internal management and partner team. Hopefully, you will either laugh hysterically (you sick and twisted freaks) or feel my pain.

We'd been working closely with a reseller to win over a large technology expansion for an existing customer. My relationship was not as strong as it should have been and I relied heavily on the reseller's relationship for updates, appointments and the final sale. We had been working closely wit them for over 6 months to try and overcome, technical, budgetary and relationship challenges. Along the way, the customer threatened to look elsewhere for a solution.

After 6 months of angst we drew near the end of a critical quarter of selling. I really wanted and needed the deal to meet some personal goals. The entire Executive Staff in my organization was involved ad pushing hard to win the deal and get it off the street. Customers communication was sporadic and always filtered through the reseller. I struggled to get an accurate idea of the customer's temperature and decision process. One day, we had the deal and the purchase order was being processed and the next, the CIO in Canada was asking them to revisit their choice in vendors. I was then assured that the PO was being cut and issued.

Three day before the appointed deadline, I received the dreaded email from my Area VP. "We've lost the deal! They've gone another direction!" As you can imagine, my heart dropped into my shorts. Within 2 minutes, I received another email from the reseller with the same message. I was now in a complete panic and my ire was rising against the customer and the reseller. I began to make desperate phone calls and send terse emails. No one would answer my inquiries. I felt like a pariah.

After a 2 hour panic, I get a voice-mail from the reseller. In it he admits to being in cahoots with the Area VP and playing a cruel joke on me and my associates...

Through this enlightening experience, I learned something. Don't rely on your resellers to maintain the only relationship with the customer. Be able to laugh at myself for my own reaction. Develop my own paths of communication and stay involved. And finally, find an excuse to be in touch with every customer.