I may have lost a client recently, because I couldn’t keep a promise.
The client in question required a business email list urgently and, having sourced a business list owner who could promise timely delivery, I placed the order and made payment. The business list in question, which was only a small order, was promised within 24 hours, which just fit my client’s requirements
Now, 24 hours later, there was no sign of the email list and no contact from the list owner. I rang, no reply. I emailed, 2 hours later and still no reply.
Eventually, I got through to switchboard and they put me through – the guy in question was maybe hiding from me, however when I spoke, he advised me it would be another 24 hours before the business data lists would be output. The reason he gave was that other larger orders had taken priority!!! How rude!!
As you can imagine, I wasn’t best pleased. This left me having to make a difficult phone call to my client who again, as you can imagine, wasn’t very happy. I left that call with no doubts as to his feelings!
Now how many times have you been let down with phrases such as “trust me” or “I promise” being thrown in your direction, only to prove later to be worthless? Frustrating isn’t it, to say the least!
I don’t know about you, but if something is going to take two days to deliver, I’d rather be told at the outset, rather than being told it’ll be there in 24 hours and then suffering frustration and disappointment as I have to constantly chase. In my industry, late delivery to me constitutes late delivery to my client, which at best reflects badly on me and at worst, costs me business. I don’t like that.
As things stand, I am hopeful that the data list works sufficiently well for the client that they decide to come back to me – I don’t know yet.
As far as this particular list owner is concerned, I am not going to buy any more mailing lists from them. Little did they know that had they delivered this small order on time, this client would definitely have returned as this client was merely sampling the data with a view to making larger, repeat orders.
So the moral of the story – don’t make assumptions and don’t make false promises. They may come back to haunt you.
