Don’t You Want Me, Business ?

Posted on October 22, 2008. Filed under: Business, Sales, Social Media | Tags: business failure, customer satisfaction, recession, Sales, Social Media |

Please Call Us

I have been trying to find a web hosting company to move this blog to.  You would think that would be fairly straightforward.  I have certain criteria, like a wordpress install included in the webspace, reasonably priced etc. but nothing too difficult or demanding.

In the past two weeks I have visited several web hosting companies that offer the services I am looking for.  I found their “contact us” page and filled out the required form, including details of what I am looking for and explaining that I would like to do this quite soon.  Of the three companies that I contacted, not one has responded with anything more than an automated email telling me that they will be in touch very soon but that if I would like a faster response I can call them at 1800……

Let me get this straight, you are a web based company, you have a contact us form on your website and you want me to phone you to get your attention long enough for me to do business with you?  I have that correct don’t I?  You have the technology to setup an auto-responder for the mailbox that your form posts to, you have the financial resources to have someone answering phones but you can’t answer you own email?  I am going to do business with you why?

Closing Down

Experian states that 4,798 businesses failed in the first quarter of 2008 up 8.5% on the same quarter previous year.  The media abounds with stories of businesses failing, of the economic downturn that we are all experiencing and yet I can’t seem to give my business to anyone.

Anyone in business development will tell you that it is between 5 & 10 times harder to acquire a new customer than it is to service an existing customer, so why, if you have a customer knocking on your door asking to do business with you would you completely ignore them?

Real Recession?

This makes me ask the question, is the recession real?  Is it conveniently timed to coincide with the election?  They say that two things that are guaranteed to get votes is to have a war or have a financial crisis.  Seems we have a war but that isnt really getting the attention it once was, so now we need a financial crisis to focus people on voting for change.

Or perhaps certain industries are immune to the recession, I would have thought that web hosting falls into the data center industry which is one of the country’s biggest users of energy, with rising energy prices I would assume their cost base has risen.  Of course my evidence is all anecdotal but given that this has happened with not one, not two but three companies over a three week period it seems that I am either being boycotted by the web hosting industry or I am experiencing something that is common to that industry and quite likely others too. As Thomas Edison said “What you are will show in what you do” a lack of follow through to a sales inquiry really doesn’t give me confidence that your customer service is going to be what I am looking for.

If you have had a similar experience please share it with me, maybe we can use Social Media to get these companies to take note of the sales opportunities they are missing.