There are several things that bug me and one is bad manners, but I am not referring to the rude person in a social setting, but rather the bad manners in the online world. I have interactions as a customer and also as the operator of my own business that very often make me cringe, or just say to myself “Why?” You may beg to differ but I feel common courtesy and respect needs to be ramped up a lot more, as it says a lot more about the person who doesn’t respond than the one being ignored.
The Tumbleweed Syndrome
You contact a business via its online contact form or email seeking more information about a product or service and then the tumbleweeds appear……
You may re-contact and do your best to give them some of your hard earned, but they never get back to you. What does this do? It annoys and frustrates you, but more importantly you end up going somewhere else to do business, which is more often than not inconvenient, but also not good for the business you wanted to frequent.
The Ghost Lead
One of my favorite annoyances, which has happened to me many times and makes me say the “Why?” to myself is when someone contacts me for a consultation and when I get back to them to arrange it I simply get no response.
Why did they bother? Why take the time to send a query, when I reply I get nothing? This one I don’t get. I don’t feel my reputation is harmed in this case, but the person who contacts me is simply saying they are either not serious, or severely lacking any integrity in the first place, and it certainly gives me a negative view of their brand without even having the opportunity to know them.
What do You Do?
I am not sure there is an answer to either of these situations. A business that is too busy, too incompetent or too lazy to respond to queries, probably deserves to lose business and to have negative stories told about them.
Those who book and then ignore may fall into the same category in my humble opinion. Perhaps it is a form of self-qualification in the sales process, as you may not find they were an ideal fit anyway, but I still have to ask why they bother taking the time to contact if they don’t want a response!
With social media, web reviews, bloggers and good old fashioned water cooler discussions all too evident, businesses can’t afford to be lax in either responding or following up. The damage potential is huge, especially when business owners are looking for cost effective ways to get new business.
Here’s one cost effective one for you- respond to queries!
Am I being too precious, or are other business owners and potential clients finding the same level of frustration, and if so, what do you do?
Tony Ozanne
“more than a Business Coach”
www.smallbusinessmba.com.au Small Business MBA – Making Business Awesome
