Customer relationships...

[mikester]

Worst professional day I can recall today.

In an executive meeting today after spending the better part of a month trying to work through a problem with a customer in good faith. It's his problem - their problem - not mine. We were trying to add value to the relationship, foster a partnership. In the end they threw me and my team completely under the bus; skewered me. My bosses were livid; the lies were ridonkulous. No good deed goes unpunished.

Fortunately my team knew the score going in but were operating in good faith and we felt we had made a lot of progress with these folks over the last year. It seems that is not the case.

It was quite a learning experience.

I wonder how my next 1:1 meeting with this guy will go...

In the end, I did my job in good faith and I honored the 'partnership' I thought we were fostering. I was honest. I can sleep well tonight with the job I have done.

I'm morbidly curious to hear other folks adventures with customers who have thrown them under the bus.

I know I'm not a perfect 'customer' in all cases but I do try to be honest as much as I can.

[Baz]

When I do all I can to create a positive relationship and the other side remains in a competitive rather than collaborative posture....I can walk away knowing I took the high road and did all I could do and it just wasn't meant to be.

What comes around goes around - their loss.

[red-beard]

I was starting up a power plant. I was replacing a person who had been working there for months, but was being forced to use up his end of year vacation. Early on I was sick, a cold or something. There was a "birthday party" at one of the local watering holes. Being sick, I didn't drink ANYTHING and I left after only a few minutes. Next day, everyone is so hung over, it wasn't funny. This was pretty typical, the other engineers were long time field guys and were hard drinkers. And I didn't socialize with these people. This was very near where I grew up, so I spent most of my time hanging out with old friends.

At this plant, I found lots of problems. The guy I replaced was NOT trained on this equipment. Some issues were installation, some came from the factory. One serious factory issue meant we had to clean the installed oil and hydraulic piping again, a multiple week proposition. No one liked this idea, but I wouldn't sign-off since this can wreck bearings and block hydraulic controls. This delayed the project by 3 weeks. They wanted to start the unit before year end for a tax credit. Not my problem.

They called up my management and asked to have me replaced and presented a long list of issues, including my getting seriously drunk at the above mentioned party, where I was there maybe 15 minutes, and never had a drink. Basically, they lied about everything and their intention was to get my 4 weeks there given to them for free.

They questioned EVERY decision I made. And when everything was reviewed with my replacement, he agreed with what I'd done. A week or so later, the original guy from my company was back from vacation, and he was buddy buddy with the installing company. Since this was $100M plant and our portion was at least $20M, my companies management threw me under the bus. It was at that point, I had to get out of that job. That was 20 years ago.

[LWJ]

Been there. Similar to Jame's story. Only it was my manager who was intimidated by the suggestion of the owner to promote me. A week later, the lies. Pretty f'n amazing the stuff they made up. I was shown the door. Two weeks later? My ex manager quits. She had a complete breakdown.

It was a crap company and it is good that I was out. Still. It didn't feel good. Pretty hard on the ego.

Larry

[Oh Haha]

I have a similar story from my management days:


My boss/mentor and I were called to an emergency meeting regarding price increases instituted at a 2nd tier automotive firm. We had a previous meeting with our contact and the greenlight was given. We posted notices for the employees and made the changes about a week prior to this call.

When we showed up we were met by their VP, the union local Pres, and our contact.

The details don't really matter but what does is that contact that we spoke with pretty much lied right there and said that we never said we WERE raising prices but that we WOULD LIKE TO raise prices. WHOA!!!!!

I started to counter when my boss stepped on my foot and apologized for the misunderstanding to the folks. WTF?!!!!

We discussed the issue on the ride back to the office.

His words-"She lied, we know she lied, and her superiors know she lied. She has to live with that and we have to accept it."

I didn't really get what he meant until several months after. It was a huuuuuge lesson for me in understanding how some people operate, in work and life.

I hope everything works out for you, Mike.

[plumb4u2]

the way I operate my business is when I go to someones house to fix their plumbing problem I diagnose the problem first then give them the price to fix before any work is performed

I love when people accept my price and have me complete the job then the next day call around and find another plumber that says he would have done it cheaper.
they then call and complain that I ripped them off

My response is "when I gave you the price why did you not decide to shop around?" usually they respond "well you had me by the barrel"

really? I'm here to solve your problem

Another problem is that I am one of the only plumbers in my area that will answer the phone on the weekends because we pride ourselves on service
well I get it all the time, when someone can't get a hold of their regular plumber on the weekends and they call me, then Mon morning they call their plumber and he says "that plumber charged you too much"....OOOkaayyy well where were you when YOUR customer needed you

Dont get it sometimes....everybody wants great service but doesn't want to pay for it

[Baz]

Justin - well I always think it is good when another contractor in my industry gets paid well for their work so when I run into this situation I always say - "Hey that's a great price!"

Maybe it's like a property selling for a lot in your neighborhood - doesn't that increase your property's value? What's wrong with that? Just because you didn't sell it doesn't make you can't profit from the sale.....heh.

[mattdavis11]

Just yesterday, a client said he cheated on me and went with a competitor. My reply was we must have not had what he needed. He verified it as true. I explained that he is in business to make money, if things aren't moving, he's not making money.

I threw my boss under the bus (he threw me under it first) with corporate once. We are a franchise, and I got sick of the lies. In corporate's eyes, I wasn't doing enough. They push hard, my boss won't push back. It was groing pains, corporate wanted to see another 586% growth, I was at 100% over the previous year, but we didn't have the staff to accommodate such.

After stewing over an email correspondence for a weekend, I let them have it before work on a Monday. Top to bottom. I was pissed. I told corp. to get off of his ass, and if they didn't, I was gone.

I showed up for work, turned my keys in, and he let me have it. He was pissed, I didn't say a word. I apologized to my fellow comrades for upsetting the boss, explained my position and took the day off. 5pm rolls around and my boss and I have a chat over a beer, all is good. I know I was in the wrong for taking action, but I let him know he was as well.

I've met, had cocktails, played golf with many of the corporate folks, owners of other franchises, VP's, etc... They don't understand how it's done and want to know. I've tried to explain, but can't effectively relay pertinent information because I'm self taught.

I'm scheduled to work with, not for, another franchise next year. I'm on loaner program now!

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by Baz

Justin - well I always think it is good when another contractor in my industry gets paid well for their work so when I run into this situation I always say - "Hey that's a great price!"

Maybe it's like a property selling for a lot in your neighborhood - doesn't that increase your property's value? What's wrong with that? Just because you didn't sell it doesn't make you can't profit from the sale.....heh.

yeah it doesn't bother me at all that other plumbers charge less..I have to charge a little more due to higher overhead but higher overhead means I can provide better service

[Baz]

I'm done with the corporate thing - had some great years - really excelled at sales and margins but very frustrated by the corporate mindset who always seem to shoot themselves in the foot by trying to make decisions without input from the field and in the process mucks things up for the foot soldiers. Anyway - I've owned my own business since 2001 and never looked back....I know it's not for everyone but if you can be the captain of your own ship you should be. I'm thankful for all I learned in the corporate world and use that knowledge every day. But it's so nice not to have the politics to deal with anymore....

[mikester]

In the 'after meeting' of our team my executive's boss realizes that we knew the dude was lying. She asks 'Why didn't you say anything?!'

Now - I'm not exactly experienced in sales having only been doing it for about a year now but I'm quite experienced with liars unfortunately.

When a liar starts lying in a meeting like that there is no arguing with them. There is no point - they are already lying so why argue and run the risk of saying something that is not exactly correct in the course of things. So - I stopped talking. 'Never miss a good chance to shut up' I always say. The thing is I have most of the documentation to debunk all of what this guy said about us to his CIO. At this point, I just don't exactly know what to do with it.

My boss's boss's boss's boss is involved doing Ultra high - air support. I think a call is going to be scheduled to talk to this guy...

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by mikester

In the 'after meeting' of our team my executive's boss realizes that we knew the dude was lying. She asks 'Why didn't you say anything?!'

Now - I'm not exactly experienced in sales having only been doing it for about a year now but I'm quite experienced with liars unfortunately.

When a liar starts lying in a meeting like that there is no arguing with them. There is no point - they are already lying so why argue and run the risk of saying something that is not exactly correct in the course of things. So - I stopped talking. 'Never miss a good chance to shut up' I always say. The thing is I have most of the documentation to debunk all of what this guy said about us to his CIO. At this point, I just don't exactly know what to do with it.

My boss's boss's boss's boss is involved doing Ultra high - air support. I think a call is going to be scheduled to talk to this guy...

what i dont understand is if what he is saying is a flat out lie and you have proof of that why dont you say something?....i get it that sometimes it is worth just keeping you mouth shut but if this is coming back on you i would think that standing your ground would be the way to go

[mikester]

I have the information that contradicts this guys lies but I did not have it in the meeting. No point in arguing because the higher level executive believes this guy is his trusted adviser and because it is has been some time since I looked at that information (probably about a year) I would need to refresh my own memory of it to ensure my accuracy.