You’ve heard the stories of the person trying to return a damaged garment without a receipt and putting up a fit about it or the person haggling the cost of an item at a department store because they thought it would get them a lower price. One of my personal experiences from my retail days involved a customer who complained that we didn’t accept a competitor’s coupons. Generally the stories are more hilarious than anything and flood the web in blogs and links in Facebook status updates.
Still, who wants to risk becoming the subject of one of these stories? Instead, think about what you can do to be considered one our favorite clients:
-
For starters, smile! No harm in a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Besides, you’ll live longer if you do.
-
Try jiggling the handle first. When you troubleshoot a bit before calling, that’s less time we may be doing what you already knew how to do, which means higher quality time for you for when you do call ... and who knows, maybe you’ll figure it out!
-
We’ll answer your questions, but you’ll please answer ours. Until there is a successful program for becoming telepathic, we aren’t going to know what you’re thinking otherwise.
-
If you call, let us help you. That’s the reason you called us, right? It only makes sense.
-
Come to the table prepared. Between all of us, you know the most about your own website, and we know the most about our software. It would be awkward for all of us if it was the other way around.
-
Give us the details. Unless the problem can be fixed with duct tape, “it’s broken” isn’t enough. We need the “where” (e.g. the page URL) and “how” (e.g. steps to recreate) from you so that we can figure out the “why”.
-
Be prepared to wait. You may be in the running to be our favorite client but alas you will never be our only client,and we should all be thankful for that!
-
Be open to new ideas. Our boundaries expand when yours expand. In fact, most of our new ideas start as the brainchildren of our clients. That being said…
-
Be open to settle. Remember, you can’t always get what you want and not because we don’t want to
sell give it to you. Sometimes the request is just not possible. Ultimately, it’s more important that an issue gets resolved than how it gets resolved.
-
“Thank You” goes a long way. If you can’t afford a “Thank You,” a gift certificate to Starbucks works just as well. And don't be afraid to tell my boss ;)
In the end, our favorite clients are the clients that work with us to get the job done
By the way, don’t tell anyone but…you’re my favorite client ;)