Answer: Because they can.

If you’re not a techno geek and you don’t have four hours to scan pages of irrelevant data online about the software you’re thinking of buying, it’s rather frustrating. Especially if you have only one or two questions.

Most of these companies won’t even provide a phone number so we can pick up the phone and ask.

Do these companies employ only geeks with phone phobia?

You’d think it’d make sense to have a few product experts around to connect customer needs with product capability.  (see my recent column on this)

But no. If you want to ask a question you must do it via e-mail. And then you wait. Sometimes you really wait. As in a three or four day wait. I’m not joking, it’s happened here. And it’s probably happened to you.

Don’t you think that leaves an awful lot of time for someone to go buy a different product?

Some companies have stepped up to offering a “chat now” feature. And a very limited few actually provide a phone number. But even that’s not a guarantee of good customer service. One company I got through to the other day had a sales rep that knew less about the products than I did. I had to show her how to find things on her own web site.

But, like I said, companies get away with this because they can. Especially if they have a highly specialized product and very little competition.

This is far from excellence. If you can take the time, write the leaders of these companies and tell them so. Maybe—just maybe—it might make a difference.

Share This

Filed in Business, Opinion, Training, Motivation, Management, Sales, Leadership, Selling