What A Frustrating Night

This is all I can even say at this point. 6 hours and SteemThat.com is still not up and running after the major upgrades to the servers. There was so much data and databases to handle the massive website that I think some things might have gotten missed. We paid a heavy fee for a team to come in and handle this whole deal and to this point it has been a disaster. I'm hoping they can work things out soon as many members are active this time of day.

Please know that I am working almost non stop to assist them in the ordeal and have talked with everyone from every department about working until the website is back up and running. One day I might publish the full twilight zone transcript with one tech who assuredly tells me that I do not have a domain registered with the company. It was priceless when I emailed them sceenshots of my receipts from just a few months ago. Who argues with their customers anyways?

If you have solid customer service skills where you genuinely desire to take care of customers I think you can make a fortune because so many have no customer service skills. Some think that they have skills but at the end of the day if playing semantics is the reason you think you are good I say PFT... When both parties are not on the same page and the customer feels manipulated or deceived that is not customer service or solid sales skills. That is a one off sale most of the time because it was a win lose situation. Did you get the sale? Sure maybe so but that is often the last sale you will get from that customer.

I sold millions of dollars worth of products every year to consumers one on one sitting down at the dinner table or on the sofa or back porch. I had phenomenal customer service and you know how I know? The amount of referrals I received after the deal was done was unheard of in the industry I was in. The amount of hand written letters was unprecedented. I was even asked by peers how much was I paying people to write so many letters. An honest, upfront fair deal that both parties are winners is all that was needed. Oh and my old timey counrty promises. When I told someone something I meant it. If I told a customer we would be there at 7 we were there before 7. Excuses didn't exist.

There was no need to waste time trying to figure what to tell a customer when we showed up late because we never showed up late. We never worried about what to say when we couldn't deliver what we had promised because we always delivered what we said we would deliver. We didn't go to endless meetings about backside customer service and how to deal with angry customers because they were so few and far between. We focused on front side customer service in such a way there wasn't a whole lot to do on the backside. We mailed hand signed thank you cards and shipped them the same day we finished the job. I would often remember critical details about a customer just picked up in general conversation. I didn't make customers take mile long surveys or fill out a lot of forms unnecessarily. Building genuine relationships builds strong businesses.

So many companies today don't care about tomorrow. In most meetings they talked about how customers were not loyal any more. I often thought to myself, you have to give them reasons to be loyal for them to become loyal customers. The large chain stores have loyal customers. Do people shop around? Yes, even loyal customers do sometimes. If you have treated them fair over the years they tend to treat you fair in return. Big online retailers rely heavily on return customers do to the amount of competition now and the cost of acquisition. Some markets for retail online sales are far better than others. Even for service companies online sales profitability often is driven by repeat business.

Why are so many companies slimy now days.

You know what I'm talking about. It seams that almost all of them give you the feeling you are being scammed. At least in the states I see it more and more that people are not genuine at all. They just work in a fake world where customer service is a robotic experience scripted to the point that anything other than what is on the screen or the card is never spoken. Try to have a normal conversation with a telemarketer even away from their job and they sound like a computer program. Their cadence is rhythmic. Every word is deliberate and sometimes full of emotion. It is pleasant to chat with them. Unless you say a keyword or phrase that catches their ear.

They can't control themselves and they say what they have said thousands of times before. There has been some kind of misunderstanding. Our products or services have never included those features or benefits. We truly do apologize if you feel confused. You walk away feeling confused about why you were talking in the first place and relieved to have not had to spend any more money to fix the thing you bought to fix the thing that doesn't solve your problem because it doesn't even come with all of the things listed on the box to begin with!

You are behooved.