How You Treat Vendors Tells Us A Great Deal About Your Culture!
I am the worst kind of vendor – a consultant! But having said that, I can certainly tell a lot about the level of employee engagement and the quality of the customer experience by the way your employees treat me – as a vendor.
What I find particularly interesting about the way I have been treated as a vendor is that I consider myself not only a partner, but I could be a customer of the company. When I am treated poorly, I quietly wonder to myself: is this the way employees are treating each other or their customers? Sadly, my guess is that the answer would be yes. Here are some real-life examples of how we have been treated as a vendor. I know consultants are considered rather low in the hierarchy – but come on I wouldn’t treat anyone like this!Emails NEVER responded to! A potential customer recently asked me (via email) for some more information on a proposal. I gladly responded and asked them (via email) to let me know whether or not their questions had been answered. I waited a week – no response. I then send another message asking if what I had provided was sufficient. I waited two weeks – no response.
Lesson: Frankly, I don’t care whether or not you want to use my services. But it is just plain common courtesy to respond to an email within a reasonable timeframe. If they aren’t EVER responding to my emails (someone who is trying to help them) … my guess is that they aren’t responding to each other or their customers within a reasonable timeframe as well.Not thanked for the use of materials. We recently developed a video on employee engagement. We have been asked by several companies to show the video (for free) at their conferences. Our response has always been that we would love to share our video. The interesting thing we have discovered is that only 70 percent of companies that we shared the video with thanked us. While one of the companies blew us away with a gift, many didn’t even bother acknowledging that they had received the link to use our video.
Lesson: You must train your employees to show appreciation to their colleagues, customers and vendors – it's just plain good management!Proposals never acknowledged. Certainly most people would understand how much time it takes to write and respond to a proposal. We are always thrilled when asked to prepare something for a customer or a potential client. However, we are finding the receipt of our proposals is not even being acknowledged!
Lesson: Even if you don’t want to hire someone or don’t like what they have presented – let them know that you have received their response and will at least take the time to look it over.Complaining or demonstrating that you are too busy. Here is one of my personal pet peeves. Have you ever heard someone really successful complain that they are too busy to return phone calls, respond to emails or thank someone for a job well done? Frankly, it is my opinion that if you complain about being too busy or can’t find the time to respond to anyone – then you are in the wrong role!
Lesson: Everyone should be able to respond and thank people for their input, comments and feedback in a timely manner. If they can’t or complain about being too busy – maybe they are in the wrong role or the wrong company!Where am I going with this blog? Simple, if your employees aren’t responding to emails, gifts or acknowledging proposals my guess is that you are either falling short in the customer service area, employee engagement or BOTH!
In this day and age, when anyone could be your customer and any interaction with your company has the ability to either cultivate negative or positive work of mouth – you had better make sure your employees are doing everything they can to cultivate customers and spread positive word of mouth!
Comments
I agree that it is imperative that employees be trained to cultivate customers. It has been my experience that management must share the brunt of the blame when such cultivation does not take place. In difficult economic times some companies tend to alienate their staff from this process. Working hours reduced, fewer associates on the floor, employee incentives and training eliminated, employee input ignored, and so on. This then creates poor associate morale. Not to mention the additional stress of not only trying to please their employer but unsatisfied customers, as well.
Daniel Wentland noted in an August 2007 Ivey Business Journal article, "An organization's employees have always made the difference between a truly successful organization and a mediocre entity, but it's amazing how often managers overlook or discount this fundamental recipe for economic survival. Organizations with cultures that focus on their people and that invest in their future will in the long-run, be more competitive than cultures that view employees as mere costs to be reduced in times of trouble."
It would appear that some companies create a Type A culture, employees first, but lose it over time. What are their root problems?
Don O'Connor
Posted by: Don O'Connor | July 11, 2008 02:18 PM
Wrong, how I treat vendors is NOT an indication of how I respond to employees.
When things get crazy-busy and I have to chose between helping an employee or responding to a vendor whose services I'm not really interested in, I'm sorry but the employee will comes first, every time.
When not interested in what a vendor is selling, tell them so politely. If they keep pestering you,it's perfectly OK to ignore their spam.
Posted by: Totally Consumed | July 12, 2008 08:43 PM
Thank you Totally Consumed for your comments. Interesting that you would start the comments by stating using the language "wrong". Personally, I don't think anyone is too busy to treat people with respect no matter whether or not they are vendors, customers or employees.
Judy McLeish
Posted by: Judy McLeish | July 12, 2008 09:29 PM