Week Two
Communication
Difficulty
communicating with a business?
Yes, I have an ongoing love hate relationship with one of my
suppliers that would end in triumph if only the owner had a true sense of how
poor his inside sales rep were (at doing their job) and how little they cared
for the client. For example, (this is actual
dialog I tell clients) “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, please forgive the wholesaler
that I am sending you to because they do
not provide service and could care less if you purchase from them,--but they do
have competitive pricing if nothing else.” ”Please do not get mad and walk out--
it’s an employee ran business”. So, if
we’re looking at Social Media as a potential short term solution, I would propose (to Ed the owner) to launch a customer satisfaction forum (and have
business professionals (buyers) participate in the thread. I think the comments
would be overwhelmingly brutal at first, but eventually it could provide
valuable insight that may help lead to policy changes (and possibly better
revenues). Also, long term Social media usage could gauge the heartbeat of the
buyers more responsively before it
becomes a negative reputation.
I am sorry that you've had such a frustrating experience with your supplier. Have you tired to communicate with them on Social Media? Have others? Do they have a social media platform in any way?
ReplyDeleteI would think that if they are not good with their customers, there must be some type of backlash on other forums (such as Yelp). Maybe it might be a good idea to search for anything said about them and simply present the owners with what people are saying about that company?
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. Yes, it is frustrating to intentionally drive traffic to a material supplier only to find that they aren’t really interested in making sales. For example, we just lost out on $3,500.00 in labor because these guys because they couldn’t provide a 15” x 18” wood sample they commonly carry with my name posted to it! Ultimately, the client lost interest and went with a competitor who did fulfill their needs.
From a social media perspective, the owner probably knows and understands the greater potential of feedback (which is clearly important). But, a bigger problem may be that every transaction they provide comes from price books off a literal shelf (some dating back to 2007 as current). So, when it comes to Social media, the owner probably isn’t ready to address the problem.