Business & Strategy
Ignoring customers
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13 Aug 2002
I assume that the Web host (who will remain nameless) that I emailed last week has all the customers they can handle right now. They are apparently so busy with them that they don’t even have time to answer email sent to their sales department.
I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Email gets lost. Someone misfiles it. Deletes it accidentally. Things happen. So yesterday afternoon I sent my questions to them again.
Nothing.
The silence, rather than being deafening, says a lot. They don’t need me as a customer. They don’t need my clients as customers. They just don’t need customers.
If you aren’t in the enviable position of having too many customers, make it a habit to answer your email several times a day. Every message, no matter how trivial, should get answered. If you run an Internet company, answer your email at least once an hour. It shows people that you are paying attention to little details. And you never know when one of those trivial messages is from someone who might be in a position to buy from you.