How one person can bring your company down
This week I’ve sent more angry e-mails than I did in the whole of 2009, and all because of one person and one very inefficient system.
Twelve months ago I purchased a technology solution to help me set up membership payments on a website. The what of this matter is not important, so I’ll skip over it.
The thing about this solution is that it’s license-based, and it comes with a recurring yearly bill.
Here’s where the issue arose.
The solution itself was very temporary and soon became something I no longer required. So I made a reminder to cancel the contract before the year was up, in order not to get invoiced again.
About a month ago I got the reminder and duly e-mailed the company in question, requesting that my contract with them be cancelled.
By way of response, I received an e-mail asking me to provide the license number.
Fair enough, and I own up that I didn’t keep it anyway handy.
These things happen.
In my original request to cancel my contract I provided my Paypal transaction ID along with the time, date and name of the purchase as proof.
I didn’t just request that a contract be cancelled.
The transaction ID should be enough to track the order. If not, the e-mail address which was used in the billing (i.e. mine). And if not, all the other details I provided.
However, the person I was dealing with decided not to do a little work and very quickly track down my license using my details, and instead asked me for the license number.
So I replied that I didn’t have the license number but I had provided everything else relevant to my order.
As with my original e-mail, I asked for acknowledgment of receipt.
However, I didn’t hear back from them.
Two weeks later, I e-mailed them again, copying my previous e-mail, and once again asked for acknowledgment of receipt.
I didn’t hear from them that time either…
… until this week, when I received my recurring invoice…
At this point, a lot of needless time and effort had gone on what should have been a simple task.
Once again I e-mailed the company in question, this time with an angry tone.
Finally, after the annoying do not reply automatic system generating e-mails, I received a reply from a human, explaining that they were very sorry that I seemed to have slipped through the net, and that my request had now been dealt with and that I had nothing to worry about.
I doubt very much that my request has ‘slipped’ any ‘net’. Especially twice.
If one item ‘slips’ your net, you need to get worried and get working on fixing that hole in your system.
What if an item worth £1 million ‘slipped’ your net?
If it happens twice, you now have a priority. You need to stop working on everything – even your money tasks – and fix that hole.
Your money tasks depend on it; the hole in your net is more important.
If you put off fixing the hole to work on a £250 item, a £1 million item could slip by the net, right under your nose.
That item could be the one to get you where you want to go, the one that gives you the means to slip out of the Rat Race.
So fix the hole.
If the same item sips the net twice… chances are you have something more than a coincidence here…
You have a bad cog in the system.
In my case, my request was met with indifference. Instead of helping me by actually doing something, by searching for my license number using the transaction ID I had provided and create a good lasting impression in me, which may have prompted me to do business with that company again, the bad cog was too lazy to even acknowledge my e-mails, repeatedly.
It meant doing a little bit of work.
And then things got sillier…
Normally this would not even have made it into a post here, but what happened next annoyed me to the point of ranting.
I received an overdue invoice.
It was the same invoice, of course.
I replied straight away, with a few choice words, and received a reply (a second apology) that this had happened.
Apparently it’s because I’m on their ‘old’ system, which has technical problems, and not the new one.
Hmm…
I very much doubt that this (or any) company runs two billing systems to do the same thing.
From a business point of view, this raises concern and alarms.
I think what really happened is that somebody messed up and didn’t remove me from the recurring billing cycle.
It’s that simple.
These things happen, and a touch of honesty would have been appropriate here.
An Amazon voucher for wasting my time wouldn’t have gone amiss either…
Talking down to your customers is never the way to go.
Perhaps a better system is required.
So that’s the end of that company
The bottom line is that my simple request to cancel my account was handled badly, then ignored twice, then handled badly again.
I realise that there’s a human factor in all this – in fact, that’s probably all there is.
And that’ the point.
The human factor is for the company to take into account, not the customers. They’re in charge of Human Resources.
One person can bring a company’s reputation down.
Don’t let it be yours.
Business tip: in your dealings, especially via e-mail, always get something back in writing. Always ask for a acknowledgment and confirmation of whatever it is that you’re requesting. Keep at them until you have the answer you need in writing. Ring them if you have to. And if it takes this much effort to deal with something simple… never do business with that company again.
Feel free to buy me a coffee if I helped you in any way ;)
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