Here’s a true story….

A local business here in Indianapolis has a copy machine.  They’ve had the same vendor servicing the machine for seven years.  For the last year, they’ve had all kinds of billing problems with the copy machine vendor.  Finally, the local business said, “enough!” and told their copy machine vendor, “you’re fired.”  They found another copy machine vendor and switched their business.

Two weeks later, the service technician from the first copy machine vendor stopped in to the office to perform regular maintenance on the copy machine.  He didn’t know his company had been fired.  The office staff explained that because of the billing problems, the local business had given up on his company.  The technician apologized and left.

This week, the sales account manager stopped in to see if the local business was ready to buy a new copy machine.  He found out his company had been fired.  There were a few awkward moments for him as he learned about the billing problems…that the accounting department had been fired…that the service technician had been fired…and no one had told him.  I imagine his cell phone was pretty hot from the conversation he had when he got out to his car.

We may laugh at this story of business incompetence, but here’s my question for you today:

Could a customer fire your business and you not know it?

Tags: Customer Care