Have you ever heard the saying “Have a good customer experience, tell 5 people or have a bad customer experience, tell 10”?   It is even more important as a small business owner that this is etched in your head every time you or your staff is dealing with a prospect or customer.  We all are left dealing with large corporations that provide poor service because they in some cases are a monopoly or their competitor is the same, such as anyone’s telephone carrier.   It merely becomes the lesser of the evils.

This is not the case with small business because that is the one place a small business can excel over their competition and win.  I recently experienced a “how not to do business” myself.   I was looking to have a service/product created for my own business and to add to this I was looking for someone to partner with in this area as it provided a complimentary offering to my portfolio.  The company knew this at the onset and it seemed important.

I made the first payment and weeks went by and I had not heard from the owner who also was the sales person, so after several emails I finally got a response.  Work had begun.  As they made changes to the product, I was told I could enter the information.  I began and it was obvious that the requirements definition for the quotation had not been read.  Much of the functionality did not exist and there were bugs all over the place.  I provided a list and asked for a conference call with the owner to discuss how we were going to address the concerns.  Two weeks went by without a response.  At this point, I sent him an appointment in Outlook and explained if he did not respond, then I would be taken further action as he was more than happy to take my money.  He did not show up for the call and when I phoned him he explained that he wasn’t ready for the call and would call me back in 10 minutes.  This turned into 30 minutes which tells you that he did not have any respect for my time.  When he did phone, he was actually quite disrespectful.  He told me it was because he was down developers and needed more senior ones and he had sold a lot.   He then was rude to his developer on the phone and yelled at him in front of me and at that point if I had any respect for this man and his business left , I definitely lost it at this time.  And I know it would be surprising to know – things are still not correct.

The sad part about this, is that this business owner does not even realize he has an issue and even worse he is the business owner himself and treats and talks to customers in this manner.   In many businesses, it is our employees that do this and  we are not always aware this is going on until a customer does speak up.  By the time that the customer does speak, you have most likely lost many prospects or customers who did not bother.  What you can be assured of is that those customers have told other potential prospects who you lost without even knowing it.

Customer service is important in any business, but in a small business it is paramount.  If there are 3 companies that offer a similar product or service, most would prefer the business that they know was courteous when they purchased and will be there to support them if there are any issues down the road.   People for the most part are understanding and if something is dealt with in a timely manner and they are treated with respect, even having small issues are not a problem.   I know myself, I would be willing to pay more from a company that I trust and know that will be there if I have a problem,  versus the one that has lower prices and does not know how to deal with customers.

The experience I have had with the vendor really outlined everything a business can do wrong from a customer service perspective.  Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • Never bid on project, just to get the project without understanding what the requirements are or what your product is capable of doing.  This will become your worst nightmare and in most cases you will lose money trying to overcome this obstacle.

  • If you tell a client that they will have a product or service within a certain period of time, then you need to deliver it on or before what you promised.

  • Do not provide information and a process in your contract that you do not follow.

  • A customer should not have to chase you to get service.  If you have an angry customer, then you need to deal with the issue head on because avoidance will not help matters.  You were happy enough to take the customer’s money, it is now up to you to make sure that you meet your obligations.   We all know that there are “those” customers that will never be pleased and in some cases are better to lose, but this is the exception, not the rule.
  • Never make excuses for why you have not met a customer’s deliverables or expectations.  It is not the customer’s problem if you have had a bad day, you have employee issues, or you have other customer issues to address, and never blame other employees.  The part missed is that you are responsible for your employees, so the issue is still with the company, not the individual.  That customer paid money for a service/product and if you could not deliver, then you should not have sold the product/service.

  • Never underestimate the amount of business you could gain or lose from a customer experience.  If this business had provided what they promised, I would have partnered with them and resold their service to my clients.  Now,  the only thing I would ever to is tell a client considering using them not to and I definitely would not sell or recommend their product/service to anyone.

The key thing to remember is that a company is only as good as its reputation and once you have lost that, it is hard or almost impossible to regain.   The saying is true about telling more people if you have a bad experience so it is more important than ever to ensure that your customers and prospects have a positive experience and tell a few, who then in turn tell a few more.  You can have the best product/service in the world, but if you have poor service or you do not treat customers properly, you will not retain them or gain further business in the future.  It takes years to build a reputation and minutes to lose it.