She picked up the phone and said: \u201cYes, I did receive your email\u201d. That was my potential client\u2019s Internal Communication Specialist who I had been trying to get in touch with for over a week. But let\u2019s start from the beginning\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day in 2016 I received a written confirmation that a reputable company had hired me as a speaker at their internal event. There was only one detail missing in that email \u2014 the fee. So I kindly replied asking to confirm the amount we had agreed on a few days earlier on the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reply was fast. To my great surprise the amount \u201cconfirmed\u201d by email was half of the sum we had agreed on. I decided to clarify and replied that I\u2019d love to work with them, but we need to stick to the original amount and there must be a mistake. Then I waited for a reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few days passed, nothing happened. I tried calling, but nobody was picking up. I didn\u2019t expect much, just some closure. Like a short message: \u201cThanks for your effort. We can\u2019t fit it into our budget this time\u201d. As in the meantime another client asked if this date was available, I was under even more pressure to know the final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After I had lost faith and started focused on other projects, unexpectedly \u2014 after 10 days, I called the client\u2019s representative and managed to get in touch with them. The only thing she said was \u201cYes, I got your email\u201d \u2014 which, I assume, meant \u201cThank you for your time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I understand that she might have been busy as organizing an event can be challenging. Looking back it is not such a big deal at all. The point is to pay attention to details and small gestures that do not cost much like picking up the phone or replying to email. I believe it signals respect to the business partner who we may meet later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could this little incident have a butterfly effect that will eventually decrease sales? What if it went like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li> This person shares their experience with her friend who is asking an opinion about XYZ.<\/p>\n<\/li> Since in a competitive market a buyer can make a decision based on customer service, such a story may persuade him to turn down XYZ\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n<\/li> This incident multiplied by the employee\u2019s careless behavior and the number of people searching for advice\u2026 How many customers would they lose?<\/p>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n How to handle such situations from the company\u2019s perspective?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Emphasize the significance of handling external communication in a compassionate manner while paying adequate respect to service providers of any size. You can show this story to your team as an example.<\/p>\n<\/li> Bring entrepreneurship trainings to your team, so they can see the big picture of your business. Entrepreneurs on average have better understanding of the business as a whole. Such trainings can improve a team member\u2019s engagement and encourage proactive attitude towards problem solving.<\/p>\n<\/li> Obviously, you\u2019ve already been sending out customer satisfaction surveys. Empower transparence by introducing feedback forms for your service providers<\/strong>, who can comment on the quality of interaction with your company.<\/p>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n Have you experienced a situation in which you felt ignored as a buyer? She picked up the phone and said: \u201cYes, I did receive your email\u201d. That was my potential client\u2019s Internal Communication Specialist who I had been trying to get in touch with for over a week. But let\u2019s start from the beginning\u2026 Disappearing buyer One day in 2016 I received a written confirmation that a reputable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-kategorii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albrechtpartners.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n3 simple tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How do you set communication standards for people from outside of the procurement department, who deal with suppliers?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"