…in 3 easy steps!

Step 1: Take 19 days to reply to a customer service-type question.

Here’s a real-life example. My husband and I have what we call a “sucky thing”–one of those vacuum sealer things to preserve food. And boy-howdy, does it suck. It has, in fact, broken after hardly any use but months after its purchase. I contacted the maker asking what could be done about it. Here below is the reply.

From: RivalService <RivalService@speedymail.com>
Date: July 9, 2007 12:39:15 PM PDT
To: XXXXXX@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Rival Comments/Questions - From Leslie Dell’Acqua [#1751106]
Reply-To: RivalService@speedymail.com

Leslie,

It can be replaced under warranty and you would need to send the seal a meal back to us and pay for all of the shipping and handling charges. Feel free to contact the Holmes customer service line at 1-800-777-5452 to have it replaced under warranty. Ruben

–Original Message–
From: XXXXXX@gmail.com
Date: 6/20/2007 1:30:18 PM
To: RivalService@speedymail.com
Subject: Rival Comments/Questions - From Leslie Dell’Acqua

Sure, they offer to repair/replace it if I pay for shipping both ways (about the cost of a new one, btw, maybe more with the mysterious “handling” charge), but note the date on my original request (6/20) and the response (7/9).

Step 2: Call your email “speedymail” (note the return email address) but take almost 3 weeks to reply.

Step 3: Get your customer’s name wrong (left out the “Burns-” part).

We won’t even mention that the correct spelling of the product’s name is “Seal-A-Meal”– a registered trademark with hyphens.

Sure, your clients might take forever to get back to you, and often they won’t even bother to let you know when you don’t get a project, but you don’t get that same luxury. Reply within 1 business day to any contact–even if it is just to say “I’m swamped and will get back to you shortly.” Also, get her/his name right. And yours, too.

Think I’m going to buy another Rival product any time soon? Your clients have even shorter fuses. It’s a simple thing to stay in contact today, and its payoffs are big.

Ah…after a few days off I am back at my Mac and hoo doggie, it looks like I missed some dust-ups on some of the forums. Lines were drawn and insults not-so-subtly thrown in my direction, and all without me being able to defend myself.

Oh well. No biggie.

Why am I not so concerned with the fact that someone said, essentially, and very publicly, that my advice was not only bad, it was actually harmful? And why would I be crazy enough to share this with you readers who may have missed it on its original forum?

Because I know that it is simply not true.

I know that I spend way too much time doing research, asking questions, reading, learning everything I can in my field (and a few related others) to think for a second that my advice is harmful. And hearing from past clients that I have helped them and their businesses confirms this knowledge. In fact, my advice is good and helpful for many. So whatever anyone may choose to say about me, good or bad, I know that it is just someone’s opinion and not the truth.

I don’t need to defend myself because I respect and honor my own experience. I also don’t need to attack others because I respect and honor theirs. In this case, this other person has taken data/information and come to an opinion on action that is different from mine. I don’t even think she is “wrong” and I am “right” but rather that we weigh different aspects of that data differently and therefore come to different opinions of the best actions to take. Of course, I think my advice is more likely to give positive results–or I would not hold the opinion that I do. But, I understand her opinion as well and it is not baseless–it is simply not the same as mine.

So, for those of you who may have been wondering, no, I’m not going to bring up what was said a week ago and hash it out on that forum. It’s in the past and those who know and respect me and my work will continue to do so, no matter what someone else (not a client, mind you–if a client had bad things to say, that would matter very much!) says. And I will continue to respect myself and do what I can, the best I can, just as I always have.