I want to tell you about an experience I am still currently undergoing. I decided to expand my skills and learn about xyz. (names will be changed as the situation is still current)

So I’d heard of MRS XYZ – the best in her field. I’d been following her for a while now, reading newsletters etc.

I thought I’d give one of her products a whirl. So I go looking through the website – find all these great testimonials. Fantastic – makes me think that these skills that I am going to learn are worth whatever amount I will pay. Find plenty of coaching tools, but no real online learning course – which is what I’m after right now.

So I send an email, just asking if there is anything like what I’m after. I get a reply within a few hours. “Yes, Emma, we have xyz program – you’ll find it here”. Gives me the link. That’s about it.  So I go into the link, read all about the program (which mind you is somewhere listed on the website…I probably wouldn’t find it without the link given to me).

Costs a few hundred dollars to purchase. From what I’ve been reading about MRS XYZ,  she has some fantastic knowledge and charges upwards of $9,000 for her time. So I kind of think that this price for this course is pretty reasonable.

So I buy it.

I get the usual automated emails – thanks for your purchase etc. One of them comes from a different person with the same surname – MR XYZ I’m presuming??? In this email I have a link to click on to enter some details about me and access my course information.

Link doesn’t work.

The page acutually says that the information is now out of date, but wait whilst you get transferred to the new site….. hmm, I’m still waiting. The redirection doesn’t work.

So this is Monday 18th. I purchase and get this email. So I send email back -no response. That’s ok, must be an automated email address. So I send one to MRS XYZ explaining that the link that you have given me is not working.

No response.

Tuesday rolls around and I get a generic email from MRS ZYX promoting something else. Ok, so it appears that she is still working ,and her email still works…. where is my response?

Finally get a reply late Wednesday afternoon – ’sorry about that Emma, we will have it fixed tonight for you”

Excellent, thanks heaps!

Thursday morning, log in and…. link still not working.

I try it again later wondering if there is some kind of time delay as she said it would be fixed last night. Still not working.

Another email gets sent  -”Hi, just letting you know the link is not working. Can you check it out please” Still very polite at this stage, because of the fantastic reputation of this person.

No reply, so I thought it was about time that I phoned. Tried the contact number on the bottom of the purchase email – “The phone number you have called is not connected. Please check the number and try again…” Hmm, not very promising… By this stage, I am starting to get midly annoyed that it is so hard to access what I had paid for.

I troll through the website looking for another number. Ring it….. Get a message bank. Yet another strike… So I leave a message, just kindly stating that the link is still not working, and I’ve not had any response from my emails, can you please call me back. Leave my mobile number.

No call back.

I receive absolutely no response until Sat arvo – with a brand new email giving me a new website link, with some login details. No acknowledgement that I took the time to ring, or sorry for not returning my call… nothing. Competely ignored it.

So I go to log in – need a password… guess what.

I don’t have one! So another email gets sent on Sunday.

It is now Tuesday lunchtime, and I still do not have a response. Have I complained to them as yet? No. I’ve written this blog post instead. I will also have no hesitation in naming the person should they not respond to the latest email.

So, even though you are great at what you do, which I have no doubt whatsoever that MRS XYZ is fantastic at what she does… she shouldn’t be in business. Not with this kind of service.

The answer for her, is to get an office manager. Get someone else to the be the front of the business because at this point in time, in my opinion, her business shouldn’t be operating.

I’m on the verge of asking for my money back… and will do should I not get what I paid for very soon. Mind you, there are other people out there who have the same business, who offer a very similiar program to this one. I feel like I’m being pushed to their business rather than hers….

I think I’ve given MRS XYZ and her product enough chances – do you?

Your customers are your lifeblood. Without them, you don’t make any money. So why don’t people treat them well?? One of the questions I always ask my new clients is “what makes you different from your competitors?” Picture this, say you sell widgets in the local main street. What happens if a new store across the road opens up and sells the same widgets? Do you drop your price and market that? What happens when you start losing your profit margin?  You go broke. Your business is outa there! So what would make people still buy from you, even if your widgets were a little more expensive?

You.

Your customer service. How you treat people will make them stay and pay whatever they need to. Relate this back to some of your own customer service experiences. I know I pay extra for plenty of things, just because of the service I receive. Share some of your experiences here.

Cheers,

Emma
Diva Promotions

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Donna-Maries Post.

When it comes to building strong customer relations it’s often the little things that count.

This week I’ve received two pieces of mail that left me a little disappointed. The first was a magazine I had requested as I was considering advertising in it and I also thought that the members of my local business group might be interested. I sent the magazine publisher an email requesting a copy and stating my interest (this very small, very new publication is available by subscription only but they do offer a free copy to prospective advertisers).

Although I didn’t receive a reply to my email, the magazine arrived about two weeks later… with no cover letter, with compliments slip or anything. Just the lonely magazine.

Now this would have been the perfect opportunity for the publisher to make some effort to build a relationship and encourage my support of their magazine. Firstly, a quick reply to my email along the lines of, “Thanks for requesting a sample copy of xyz magazine. I’ll pop one in the mail for you today.”

This could have been followed up with a brief note or even just a with compliments slip in the envelope.

But… there has been no personal interaction from this publisher at all and I’m not sure if they even want my business. They’re certainly not trying to win my confidence in them.

The second piece of mail was a booking form for a series of workshops. Again, the sender went to the trouble to hand-address an envelope to me and pay for postage, but there was no cover letter – not even a generic letter photocopied for all recipients. And there was nothing to say how they knew me. In fact, how did they even know I might be interested? (Truth be told, I wasn’t. It’s not something even remotely related to my interests).

Apart from the 1,001 Direct Marketing mistakes we can get side-tracked by here, if the sender had spent two minutes introducing themselves it would have made the world of difference. I may have even passed it on to someone who may have been interested… instead of putting it straight into the recycling bin.

So, if you want a successful small business, remember to pay attention to the little things and the personal touches that go a long way in building strong customer relationships.