Saga of the President Missing the Save

The story so far....

I was unhappy with the service and contacted the company president (who knew me) to ask for a change of representative on my account. Although he didn't respond to two of my voice messages a week apart he did respond to my email in a positive frame. His last question to me was about what I felt was lacking in the relationship.

I felt encouraged by his interest and responded with the following email.
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Hello John,

Thank you for your reply and offer.

The main issue is the poor working relationship with my broker.

I feel there is a lack of trust, lack of respect, lack of effort and lack of response. I believe that I have been misled. I do not feel that my broker was working on my behalf. Instead I've been given insulting excuses and a you-versus-me positioning.

The exchanges over the past year have been too aggravating. I can't believe that I was paying to be treated that way.

George Torok

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As you can see, I was clearly an unhappy customer. If you were the CEO how would you respond to this open and honest feedback?

But when you read his reply you will see that even though John had asked the question he apparently didn't really want honest feedback. Sometimes people ask questions because they want to appear to be helpful but don't really want to listen to the answer.

It looks like the president saw my comments as unwanted criticism. His reply seemed more about defending than about discovering.

Read his response. By the way, you might wonder why he didn't pick up the phone and call me. I wondered the same thing.

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Hi George

I'm sorry that you feel that way. It's unfortunate that clients in our network are placing a higher priority on using their Barter dollars for expenses other than business coaching and training etc. The fact is, it's extremely hard to bring you business as it is all of our sales trainers etc.

I can switch you to a different broker but I fear that they will have the same difficulty bringing you new business so we will be back to the same frustration on your part.

Your comments below seem to be far-fetched. How have you been misled, that's a strong word and would imply that you have been lied to.

John

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Notice two things about his reply.

First
He responded to a different question. He talked about clients being reluctant to spend their money on coaching and training. That is a part of my business - but I had not raised that as a concern. Read my previous message and you will see that "my issue is the poor working relationship with my broker".

His response might say more about his own concerns.


Second


The strongest word in this message was "far-fetched".

In particular the phrase that grabbed my attention was: "Your comments below seem to be far-fetched."

He even went on to say "How have you been misled, that's a strong word and would imply that you have been lied to."

This would seem the time to pick up the phone or arrange a phone call. And curious that he left the question mark off that last statement - as if it really wasn't a question at all. He didn't offer to fix things or discover more.

That sentence started as a question and ended as a positioning statement.

Next

What happens when the president stops listening to customers?


Here are the five chapters in this series of abusive conversations with the company president.

Chapter 1: Do You Trust the President of the Company? 

Chapter 2: Saga of bad service and President with really bad attitude

Chapter 3: Saga of the President Missing the Save

Chapter 4: Saga of the Company President with an Attitude

Chapter 5: If the President of the Company Won't Help You

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
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