Tech PR: One Bad Experience Is All It Takes
Posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009
One reader of “Customers Want Great Service” asked why I fired Rado the web designer after a single misstep. Actually the offending incident cited was the umpteenth. As a PR guy I overlook a lot of outrageous behavior. Most customers, including mine — journalists — aren’t so forgiving.
Recent research on customer behavior shows that 40 percent of customers leave a company after a single bad experience. Worse, according to this research, some 87 percent of those that defect tell friends and colleagues what happened.
I suspect the same is true of media. Miss an interview or mislead a journalist, you’re on her or his black list for good.
Once a client of ours cancelled a meeting with The Washington Times — with no warning, at the client’s office, after the reporter had driven an hour to get there. Apparently, the CEO who was to meet the reporter learned that his company had entered an SEC “quiet period” and couldn’t say or do anything that looked like flakking the stock. He should have known sooner and told me. To this day, when our paths cross that reporter looks like he wants my blood. As far as I’m concerned, he’s within his rights.
Then there was the company that blatantly failed to Do the Right Thing: They flat-out lied — to me and a reporter — about under-the-table dealings with a shady financier. ‘Nuff said.
In contrast, I had an experience this week that made me extremely proud of a client. During an analyst briefing, the company president misspoke about a product feature. Turned out his product didn’t do one tiny thing he’d said it did. On realizing his mistake, the prez called me immediately and asked to personally call the analyst, apologize and set the record straight. How ’bout that! Mistakes happen. The usual attitude is “aw, let’s forget about it” or “who cares? — they’ll never find out.” This client’s honesty won my heart and I’m sure the analyst’s, too.
Back to Rado. It wasn’t just one thing, rather a litany of deception and rude behavior:
- Broken Contract. Our agreement said they’d provide “two looks” or design concepts. I received one, liked it, but wanted to defer a decision til I saw the second design. Rado’s response: “You get one design. You can look at it twice.” (No, I’m not making this up — he really said that.)
- Missed Deadlines. When I asked for deliverables promised the week before, I heard, “Oh, didn’t you receive that? — I’ll re-send it.” Not once, but several times. Repeated delays pushed back the “go live” date on our web site by months.
- Taking Virtuality to Thin Air. Six months into a three-month project, we were getting worried and wanted to talk live. Guess what? — talking by phone was impossible. We tried everywhere. The “contact us” page on Rado’s web site touted 3 physical locations and showed photos of big office buildings to prove the point, so we tried calling each one. A little investigation revealed that the web designer wasn’t really in any of these locations: He worked at home and the buildings belonged to a friend. I don’t care if a company is “virtual” — but don’t pretend you’re something else.
- The Last Straw. When I sent in prospective training dates and Rado replied “How dare you assume I’m available then?” that did it. I was ready to fly right through the Web and strangle him with my bare hands.
That’s four offenses. If I wanted to bother with it, I’m sure I could remember more. But I should have fired him at #1.
A journalist will do just that. The majority are extremely fair-minded. But don’t ever “break the contract” by violating their trust. Journalists don’t forget and never forgive. Having seen or two made fools of by a lie that went to print, I don’t blame them.
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Now I’m wondering what you set out to look for when you wound up at our site.
Appreciate the kudos, Jason.
Best,
Jim
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