mySMBcommunity Blog

Ben* is a very enthusiastic entrepreneur. Ten over years in the business and still counting. However, Ben will attest that his chosen path has had its up’s and downs. Ben has a positive mindset and has been able to overcome his setbacks and turn them into his personal learning experiences.

Here is Ben’s experience:

Years ago when Ben was still relatively young in the business world, he was very keen to please his clients. There was nothing wrong with that except that Ben was a little too eager to please his clients and often went out of his way to help them.

Some clients loved what he did for them. Unfortunately, Ben also had clients who just simply loved to waste his time. One particular client had requested for a proposal from Ben’s IT solutions company. The client was based in another state, which was more than three hours away from Ben’s office. The client agreed to Ben’s quote for services and asked Ben to drive up to his office to sign and seal the deal.

In his excitement at clinching a seemingly big project, Ben agreed immediately without much thought and set off the next day. He met with the client and they had a long discussion. The client however, delayed signing the agreement, promising to start the project the following week and sign off then. Ben trusted him implicitly. As the day became dark quickly in the middle of winter, Ben didn’t feel like driving all that way back in the dark. He opted to stay overnight at a motel.

The overnight stay, the petrol and the time Ben spent at the meeting came to nothing. The next week came and went and the client never signed the deal nor did he start the project as promised. Months went by and again, there was no word from the said client. It was just a wasted trip.

Ben was quite upset at the lengths he had gone through to close a deal and even more so with the money that he had wasted. As he was a young entrepreneur, every cent was important and he felt that he had just wasted his money without much thought.

Ben learnt from that experience. Today, while Ben still aims to please his clients, he puts a lot of thought into his decisions. He prefers to close deals using the ample technology of today with Skype, emails and various other communication tools. Of course nothing beats the face to face meetings with clients and although Ben is ready to meets clients within his state, he is more careful when dealing with the ones out of the way.

He went out of the way and made a loss back then, but Ben is certainly wiser now.

What we can take away from this story is how to be very careful when dealing with clients. We also have to be discerning about how much we do for the client before he or she signs the deal and pays for the required goods or services. Some clients are capable of getting all the information out of one vendor before taking all that information given and passing it on to another vendor. It sounds unscrupulous but it’s true. Such things do happen.

Don’t compromise on good customer service. However it is wise to take note and protect ourselves. Be aware. Be discerning. There is really no point in going out of the way, only to incur a loss.

* Names have been changed to protect identities.