Customers can be frustrating as all get out.
Not a rant cause I'm not angry or upset but jeeze louise some folks are an almighty trial.
Had a guy call me last week. He wanted a half cord of dry firewood. I returned his call within an hour and he didn't answer and his voice mail box was full. I call him an hour later again. Same thing. I call him late in the afternoon, same again.
I call him the next morning and answers and he says I never called him back so he bought form someone else. I tell him okay no problem but I did try to call him back.
Late yesterday afternoon he calls and leaves a message that the wood he bought was delivered but is to green to burn. He wants to buy some dry wood from me to mix with the green stuff the other guy brought him.
I call him back. You guessed it, he don't answer an his voice mail box is still full. I call him again. Same thing.
What do ya do with folks like this? :D
I would put that one on ignore. Too busy to empty his mailbox? Pshaw!
Unless you really need his business, ignore him.
I'd try twice to reach him, you've tried much more than the average.
Save your good dry wood for long term customers.
If he's that flaky with the phone, he's probably flaky with paying his bills too.
It should show up in missed calls?
I've had that problem a few times with special orders at the store.
I always write the date that I called and what happened, left message, mailbox full ect. I will try 3-4 times to contact them.
Had some come in and say we never called. Show them the special order slip and all they can say is Oh. ::)
I always call back using the same number in my phone. 2 times is all they get.
I would also charge this type of customer the PITA rate. At least %20 more.
Text him a screen shot of your phone screen showing you tried to call him. Explain in the text that the ball is in his court if he wants the wood. This doubles down as a record showing you tried to call him. This all has to do with if you really need the sale that bad. You have already done more than most of us would have.
Well he did call again and I delivered him a half cord of dry firewood. He was happy with it and showed me what the other guy had brought him. It was green cherry. Not only were there a lot of large rounds, stuff that SHOULD have been split but man was it was GREEN. Heck you could still smell it.
He says he'll be calling me again and I told him fine but empty out your mail box or feel free to text now that I know where he is.
Nice kid really. Pretty young and just bought the house he is heating. After our rocky start he may turn out to be a really good customer. I hope he does. As much as I wish it weren't so this game aint all cutting splitting and stacking, its dealing with customers as well. And that's the hardest part of it.
So, that's good it turned out that way. You're building a business and he's looking for a reliable supply of good firewood. Win - Win.
"Kid" "pretty young" Real common for that group to have the "box full" message. And when it's not full, they call you back without listening to the message saying, "I see you called" Drives me freaking nuts. My God son does that all the time. Might strangle him on Thanksgiving on account of that. And it'll be more pumpkin pie for me :)
Well, you'll have your hands full, Strangler 😉 Most of'em don't use the phone as a phone anyway. They send texts back and fore like a berserk popcorn machine spitting out acronyms and shorthand and God knows what all. They only use the 'telephone' part of the phone if theres a national disaster or Taylor Swift has crashed the internet with tickets sales.
Adapt and overcome for me, texts only for most of my family now. We've had Thanksgiving in Canada already and strangulations were considered but for other reasons.
I call back once and if/ when I get the mailbox full BS i text once. That's my effort
Quote from: OH logger on November 20, 2022, 08:16:11 PM
I call back once and if/ when I get the mailbox full BS i text once. That's my effort
Yup.
Yeah, you guys are probably right.
But then like Andries said, I'm trying to build a business.
Maybe i better make those extra efforts for a while yet till I have enough steady good customers that i can get choosy. The cash in my pocket today and a chance for repeat business gets my attention.
I actually prefer the txts for simple and non-urgent communications, with family AND customers. You know they have the message, and if it's an address / part number / grocery list or time to meet up, it's there recorded on the phone so you can double check when you forget what you were supposed to pick up on the way home. :D (Admit it, you've stopped at the store and not got one of the things you were sent there for....)
Now if it takes more than 3 txts back and forth, then I give up and call. :D
If I only forget one thing I consider that a success.
I have customers I've only communicated with by text. They texted me inquiring about firewood or lumber, came and picked it up, and left money where I told them. Never spoke in person or met. It was like my goods just magically turned into cash, I like it😁
I also like texts for those simple non urgent messages, where a conversation isn't necessary. But I don't like them in place of a conversation. Only text with family and close friends. Have never texted with customers and would never turn on that spigot, as it drips 24/7. I do realize it's necessary for some businesses, but I don't want to be open when I'm closed, if you'll pardon the pun.
We have always been very fortunate to have more customers than we can handle, so using technology to get/handle more of them has never been necessary. In fact the opposite has been true. Killed the FB page because it was just one more conduit for messages and questions. (a good one if you need it) Managing all of the "incoming" from FB, texts, the dealer landing pages from each brand of equipment, the google page, etc, can be a challenge. You can spend half the morning getting back to people before you get anything done. To the folks who use those various conduits, each of them is considered a valid method of communication. And when you don't respond, they naturally feel offended. But it can be coming in from all directions at all hours and admittedly, I can't deal with that. So it's always been land line phone, stop in, or e-mail during store hours.
I usually text someone that I need to talk to and ask them if they are available to chat.
Sometimes they are driving and can't chat. Sometimes they just call me back without a text reply. That works for me; however, I would like the text to know that they are available and intending to receive my call.
Jim Rogers
I treat txts like email, it's for stuff that doesn't need an urgent response. If a client txts me at 5:30, it's generally about something that needs to be dealt with tomorrow. If something is on fire and needs urgent attention you dont send an email or txt.
And a txt that says, "pls call me when you are free" is another sensible one. Like Jim says someone might be driving, in a meeting, sawing etc and not able to answer right away. But now you know they want to talk, and it's probably more involved than a simple txt.
I run into similar situations on the reverse, with people selling stuff or giving it away. Mostly on FB marketplace. I msg folks and either item is sold/gone and they didnt update the ad, they put free or underpriced, then change price when contacted, description is not complete, or they simply dont return the msg.
I too prefer txts for non important/emerg or to find out if they or i have time to talk via call. I do it esp with my boss since he is as busy as one legged man in a kicking contest. If it urgent/aog, i call, then call back immediately and continue until he answers.
Quote from: B.C.C. Lapp on November 20, 2022, 09:18:32 AM
Customers can be frustrating as all get out.
Not a rant cause I'm not angry or upset but jeeze louise some folks are an almighty trial.
Had a guy call me last week. He wanted a half cord of dry firewood. I returned his call within an hour and he didn't answer and his voice mail box was full. I call him an hour later again. Same thing. I call him late in the afternoon, same again.
I call him the next morning and answers and he says I never called him back so he bought form someone else. I tell him okay no problem but I did try to call him back.
Late yesterday afternoon he calls and leaves a message that the wood he bought was delivered but is to green to burn. He wants to buy some dry wood from me to mix with the green stuff the other guy brought him.
I call him back. You guessed it, he don't answer an his voice mail box is still full. I call him again. Same thing.
What do ya do with folks like this? :D
They all want you to hold a cell phone and not a 'saw'. If you cater to this type of person it well only get worse. I have no cell phone and return calls when I get time, sometimes the next day. The people have to need you not the other way. This can take years and a better product than your competition.
Send a text.
Well Doug, I wanted to ask "What is this cell phone of which you speak?" but figured I was the only one that wasn't packing big plastic :D.
Quote from: moodnacreek on November 22, 2022, 08:33:37 AMI have no cell phone and return calls when I get time, sometimes the next day.
Fair enough if that works for your business. Part of mine is IT support, and calling back next day isn't good enough. It is if I'm selling firewood, but not if I'm support a computer network. Not being able to answer a call because I'm driving or in a meeting etc is fine, but I'll check messages / email / txts when I'm able and respond as appropriate. I've got a site visit scheduled on Friday with one of our regulars to check a machine that's playing up. I've got Mary who is our contact (office admin) there pretty well schooled up on basic fault finding and common problems, and she knows to call if it's Urgent and I'll answer / reply as soon as able. Last month she called on a Saturday morning to say the whole place was dead in the water. No internet, and only a couple of phones working. OK, we tried some things over the phone, but no joy, but I had a suspicion of what was wrong so I finished what I was working on, packed a couple of spare network switches in the car and headed out.
Turns out it was the main network switch that was acting up, and because I had been able to do some basic fault finding over the phone with Mary, I had the spares to at least duct tape the system back together for Monday morning. We got a new switch in and swapped that for the Sat morning duct tape and string patch-up a few days later. But without the cellphone communication we would have got into the office on Monday morning to a series of panic calls, and 20 animal vets / support staff wondering what they were doing.
But that's where having the communications in your pocket really pays off. We have had that client for over 30 years now, which is "forever" in IT terms, because we have sold them stuff that mostly works, and responded when it didn't. We no longer have reception staff to answer the phone, the "office" is basically in our pockets.
Kind of amazing humans have lasted as long as we have without constant contact.
We had a subcontractor out not long ago. After the first day we kind of paid attention, for one I was babysitting him some long hours. A solid third of his time was throttled down and on that phone. Some people actually need tight contact, the other 99% just think they need close support.
There are some distinctions between businesses where having the "office in your pocket", (I like the term), and having the office in the office are each appropriate. One is where the service is provided at a customer's location, rather than at a business location. A second is where the service provided cannot be confined to business hours. Both apply for instance in the case of snow plowing. For most of my pro customers, tree servicees, landscapers and such, the cell phone is a Godsend. Keeps them in touch with customers during the day, and eliminates going home to return dozens of phone calls/messages every evening. But in businesses like mine, there's no need for any customer contact when the store is closed. You wouldn't send a text to a restaurant owner when he's closed just because you're dying for the meat loaf special.
The amount of calls/texts that are unnecessary, and the times they receive them, is what my customers complain about most often. Back to snow plowing, one friend sent out a letter to all of his customers pleading with them to refrain from calls/texts during the storm. Takes care of 100 properties, and cannot constantly reply to folks that want some reassurance that he's going to plow their driveway. As with a lot of things, it's the "multipliers" that can make something go from the innocent to the impossible.