The Letter I Almost Didn't Send
Going about my normal Tuesday afternoon, naptime, activities at the desk I received a call from a customer with a problem, again. She’s only had the shades for 6 months- this is the 2nd time she's called with the same problem. The shades weren't operating correctly - and even the vendor couldn't figure out why at first. OH, YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Dropped everything and called the vendor. They didn’t know what to do either… 30 hours later after another phone call and numerous texts from the obviously annoyed customer I still hadn’t heard back from them! Made the call, ‘I need an answer today’, by golly that was a first they put me on hold, walked to the right guy, and got an answer- they were remaking the shades! FINALLY!
The thing about this is I went to the customers house 4 additional times than should be necessary for a basic living room motorized shade set up. FOUR, plus a few after the original install as a courtesy to charge the shade for her. I broke down crying, this whole thing was an absolute waste! The vendor not helping, the customer nagging- I’m stuck in the middle! I finally wrote an email to my rep- who when I have reached out to him in the past about something shrugs it off and makes you call customer service. Yep, to add to the frustration, I have to pull teeth to get my sales rep to help me.
The thing about this is this is the ‘service’ I get from all my vendors. I invest in their samples- NO SAMPLES AREN’T FREE. I trust their product. I sell their product. Then I’m left in the cold to read the hundreds of emails full of nonsense and fluff to keep up to date on what's going on. Why is business like this? What happened to sales reps coming around quarterly or twice a year, seeing your space, how you do it, where your customers come from, checking your samples, showing off new products? Sorry, it was on a webinar, didn't you catch that?...
The letter- I sent the rep an email. I broke down all the trips I made to her house, expressed some frustrations, and was very careful in my wording. It took 24 hours to get an email back from the sales rep- coupons… I got as he described 3-$75 coupons (which turns out to be 9-$25 coupons, ever been to a time share presentation?) and one credit for $75. Was the letter worth sending? Yes.. But a week after getting that email he called me- he’d been waiting for my response to the offer. The email didn’t sound like an offer that I could counter back on, it sounded like that's what is happening, so now the credits and what not are finally applied to my account.
Re-hashing this still leaves me not sure I want to be in business anymore. There are only so many manufacturers for custom window treatments- the big companies are not going to service me either but the smaller ones leave the pricing so high I can’t make the sale. But the day goes on, what’s a mom to do? I’ve worked this business up for the last 19 years- I’m still unknown in town but my hours allow me to be there for the kids. I mean today the bus dropped the kids off at the showroom so I could save a trip to and from home running to baseball practice. I’ll be able to attend most of the games. I can take them to any appointment, or pick them up from school and still have time for everything for work to get done. So I proceed on in faith.
Social media is dangerous- it highlights all the good stuff, I can share about great things and my friends and family think things are going ok. Only the true people know the battle I’m fighting to keep myself doing this each day. At the end of the month I post a gratitude post to my business page. I’ll include my favorite pictures from the month- business or personal. April is my birthday month, so I did all my personal pictures. I got many nice notes from customers and personal people. It was lovely. I also took the time to post to the local mom group page and introduced my business. I gained 4 followers after those 2 posts. Proving that there are still people to find me.
I was also blessed to go to a repeat customer for the third time. She’s re-doing the treatments after building 18 years ago (I installed the originals too). She’s making a bigger investment this time and it felt like helping an old friend. I hope more people like that come around.
Sometimes you advocate for yourself and get a timeshare presentation in return. You do it anyway. Because you showed up for yourself even when the result was underwhelming — and somewhere in that, God slipped in a $9,600 sale from a woman you've served for 18 years.
I’m not alone in this, God’s helping, listening, re-centering me as I spiral. He provides.
With Grateful Hands-
Korin
