A good small company or a big rubbish one?

[Frimley111R]

I am consistently wondering why we work so hard for our customers when much larger companies seem to simply ignore the customer service element of their businesses and just throw masses of money at marketing.

One of our contractor teams works with a big solar installer and the things they tell me about customers being really pissed off at the company they purchased their panels from or simply spending days going around fixing poor installations from other people, are shocking and yet they seem to be stacked with jobs. Many say they will burn out with such poor reviews and customer service but I'm not seeing it.

I've seen it with another unrelated business where the MD had been told to pile as many fee paying clients in as possible and not to worry about whether they fulfilled their obligations (they had loads of excuses for not doing so).

I think, if you've not got a conscience, you could make some big money....

[SydneyBridge]

Guess it depends if you need the customers again

[zbc]

SydneyBridge said:

Guess it depends if you need the customers again

and how easy it is to find new ones

[StevieBee]

Frimley111R said:

I am consistently wondering why we work so hard for our customers when much larger companies seem to simply ignore the customer service element of their businesses

It's because we, as business owners, are much closer to the consequences of poor service on reputation, cashflow and ultimately the viability of the company.

Larger organisations are in the main, driven by scale and sales. So the sales team are driven by sales targets. They make a sale, get their commission and move onto the next prospect. What happens thereafter is of no concern to them. Plus, these companies have a level of robustness that allows them to deliver second-class work because there's sufficient customers willing to accept this. Why do more?

I see this a lot in the public sector where large contractors win multi-year contracts with a tender describing rainbows and unicorns at a price that's less than the cost of delivering it. When they're up and running, the clients find that it's more drizzle and warthogs. But, politicians can demonstrate that they got a good price and the company has a multi-year contract; even if it does make a loss - they can recover that from somewhere else.

Ultimately, they can get away with it. How many threads have there been about Ryanair over the years? How many people have threatened to never fly with them again or predicted their imminent demise? Yet, they continue to thrive. You pays yer money.... etc.

[ADJimbo]

As I say to my employees and customers;

"We have become a big business by still thinking like a small business"