Don’t Get Mad, Get Honest
October 9, 2007 – 4:54 pmToday I had it up to here (visualize me holding my hand above my head) with a software we use to run our business. Seems I spend more time lately getting the bugs and quirks resolved on the software than I do using it to make us money. So today in frustration I shot off one of those jab-em in the gut emails to make myself feel better. I’ll share with you the dialogue below but have deleted some parts to keep this private (some of you will guess and be right).
From Me:
<other company> tells me <competitors product> works great. I?m living my life waiting for the next **** patch or release and I?m tired of sitting on the phone listening to support trip all over themselves. I?m running out of options, time and patience very quickly. My technicians have told me that they no longer ?trust? ****. 
I really like the response I got. Sometimes you have to believe in somebody if for nothing else, the faith they themselves have.
Response:
I realize we have made life more difficult than necessary for you over the past month and I apologize for this. We are implementing Service Pack 1 right now to select partners and expect to have it out for everyone shortly. I am completely confident that we will earn the trust of your technicians with some of the great new features we have introduced and that we will continue to introduce to support performance, stability and reliability in the product.
<competitors product> is a very basic **** server ***** product. When our product works as advertised there is no contest. Success is right around the corner and I sincerely believe that your best course of action is to dig into your reserves of patience as we are very near to addressing your concerns and that once we do this we will be untouchable by any other **** ****.
I’m not sure if they ever will be the best product but how can you doubt that kind of humility and faith. Technology comes and goes put partners last.
When you have issues with your vendors, don’t bad mouth or blog about them. Instead try treating them like a partner and get open and honest. You might be surprised that they too are trying their hardest to run a decent business in spite not being perfect.
2 Responses to “Don’t Get Mad, Get Honest”
Indeed, I couldn’t agree more. For many companies, “Partner” is a well-sounding marketing term. In the end, we all behave as suppliers & customers, just like in the good ol’ days (not!)
It’s like the (in)famous chain of success, or the lack thereof;
If your own customers are constantly unhappy about the effectiveness & efficiency of your operations, chances are high one will “bluntly” complain to supplier-partners the same way. Potentially, if they have many complaining customers, they, too, will yell at their suppliers.
In the end, we have a spiral of frustration.
If on the other hand a company is well organized, well-funded and receives praise (or the lack of complaints, fine) by its customers, chances are high they will treat their partners-suppliers alike. These, receiving “praise”, may feel inclined to do the same… and so on.
While there are certainly shady businesses out there that are not worth of our time and patience, a good majority of those that survive the first 5-10 years, are those with a vision and a mission to make it happen. And to these companies, a succesful product or service is their ticket to growth, increased revenue and oh well, while at it, eternall bliss - not?
So of course they want their product to be stable, best of breed and customer satisfaction to be high. It is what they, just like ourselves, try to do all day, to make a difference, to have a business worth pursuing.
But I agree to your point - and I sincerely await SP1 too
Koen, Gent, Belgium
By Koen VO on Oct 10, 2007
Maybe we should include a short discussion next week about product performance - It sounds like you are not alone in your fustrations!
By Patrick Arney on Oct 10, 2007