What has happened to customer service?

Written on 18 December 2005
I’ve had a very annoying week this week. I really feel that customer service is a thing of the past for most companies, especially when their customer is a small start-up company, who is really having to watch every penny.

I can see that the business we are giving to others is obviously minimal compared to the level of orders they usually get from established businesses, but how short-sighted are they? How do they know that in 12 months’ time we could be making the same large orders, when we are more established. Well you always remember who’s let you down, so bear that in mind when you are dealing with customers yourself!

There’s been a few incidents this week which have caused the above rant. And after the PC World fiasco last week, I was in no mood for them!

Firstly, I rang the printing supplier on Tuesday. We had travelled over to St Helens (Merseyside, a good 90 minute journey for me) the previous week to see the (supposed final) artwork and the bag samples for some screen printing we wanted doing on some bags for the promotional work we are doing on 22nd and 23rd December. When we got there, the artwork hadn’t been done, in fact what had been very hastily printed off was something that bore no resemblance to our logo at all, and the colours were completely different. Now I remember how much care we took with our logo, branding and the colours, and I’m quite protective of it now I think we’ve got it right! So I was not impressed at all. One bag we should’ve seen a sample of hadn’t arrived, and the other bag just wasn’t suitable. So we left it with them that they would email me the final artwork and the quote, for both the bags and 2 fleeces we left with them, and came away. I should’ve received this email on Monday. So by Tuesday, nothing had arrived, and I rang them up. The salesman I had spoken to wasn’t in, so I was put through to a printer (I think, but he may have been a designer, he didn’t say who he was). He told me it wasn’t possible to screen print in the number of colours we needed (3) onto the bags/fleeces. Not sure why, I didn’t even stop to ask. I was furious. Why had no-one rung me? We were up against a tight deadline, and I’d just been ignored. Charming.

Second incident, again due to printers. We were supposed to collect some promotional cards when we met our mentor on Thursday (which itself went very well, but more of that later), as they have done the design and dealt with the printers. Despite giving us a due date of Thursday, they then informed us that the cards were still drying, and so they wouldn’t arrive until Friday. Apparently, the factory was too cold, and the drying was taking longer than anticipated. I ask you, British Rail and leaves on the track ring any bells? Okay, so not a disaster, and they did arrive as promised on Friday. But still a bit niggling.

Then on Thursday evening we had to do to the UPS depot to collect 10,000 packs of crayons, again for our promotional event. Now I’ll give UPS their due. I’m very impressed with their service. We had missed the attempted delivery on Thursday morning, so rather than them attempt a second delivery on Friday, we arranged to collect them from the depot. And our promotional supplier, Angus Limelight, helped us out with tracking numbers etc, so we could arrange this. He really tried his best and I thank him for this.

However, when I looked at the crayons I was a bit disappointed. The branded packs were smashing, really good quality. But the crayons themselves were about 2cm shorter than the box, and when they were laid side by side, they were quite a bit narrower than the box. It looked like we’d put the wrong crayons in the box.

After speaking to Angus Limelight about this, he told me it was really difficult to get crayons in such small quantities, and the choice around the world was very limited. I appreciate to him, and worldwide crayon suppliers, that 10,000 packs is small-fry, but to us it was a massive investment. And it took a lot of discussion and research before we made the decision to go ahead with this promotional event, simply because of the cost to us. (see diary post on November 10th).

I suppose I blame myself, because I didn’t ask enough questions about the product. I knew the size of the box, but just assumed it had been measured to match the size of the crayons. Well I’ll know in future to ask a lot more, and think of every possible thing that may not be as I expect.

I think the motto here is just to keep on top of your suppliers. Confirm every detail of your purchase order, put everything in writing, and keep chasing them and double-checking delivery dates until it arrives. Insist on good customer service, even if it means you make yourself a nuisance. Good suppliers won’t mind because they’ll realise the possible lifetime value of your business with them.

The last things we’ve already ordered, for our preview evenings in January, are due to arrive on Tuesday and Thursday next week. I’ll be really hassling about them keeping those delivery dates, because if we miss them, we are right on top of Christmas, and I bet most suppliers are closing down on Friday. We have a lot to do over the Christmas break, and we really need these deliveries to plan ahead for the first week in January.

Some excellent news this week. We met again with our proposed ‘mentor’, and went through the nitty-gritty of the deal with him. Everything seems fine. Just one minor change to the documents for tax reasons, and he should be signing this week. So more about him and his planned role in our business next week.

Kirsty