On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: >> Companies live and die by their reputation with customers. Large >> companies with multiple product lines don't always appreciate how a >> pooch-screw in one division can affect perceptions across the board.
On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Sean Martin <[email protected]> wrote: > That may be, but it's not the customer's fault. Absolutely. That was, indeed, my point: Some people are surprised that MSFT wasn't under consideration here. Turns out some other part of MSFT screwed up badly, leaving the customer with a dislike of MSFT. That's how business works; people shouldn't be surprised. > In a perfect world, the customer would at least make the effort to let the > company know why they are unhappy, rather than make the adhoc > decision to never do business with said company again. I generally try to let suppliers know why I'm not their customer anymore. That said, sometimes a company just doesn't care, or at least doesn't have the ability to put the customer in touch with someone who cares. When that happens, my decision to never do business with them again isn't ad-hoc; it's based on the fact that I don't see sufficient ROI in spending further time/effort/etc in fixing someone else's problems. I've got enough of my own problems. That's another thing companies often miss: It's critical to have a clear, easy, unobstructed customer feedback mechanism. If you make it hard for the customer to tell you they're unhappy, chances are you won't hear about it until it's too late. -- Ben
