I Love My Clients

I've been in some sort of sales role for the better part of 15 years. I can honestly say that what keeps me here are my clients.

My clients have taught me so many things about their industries, their employee engagement strategies, their culture and language, among many other things. I can say with certainty that I like and/or respect at least 98% of my clients. I even have a few that I keep in contact with though they don't use my services.

Then there are the remaining 2%.

Now I can work with people who have difficult personalities or tough requests. In fact, I'm known for it. I have one client who I think is awesome and I was shocked to learn that many years before I started at my workplace that this client made a coworker of mine cry!

The people who I have a problem with are those who have no respect for me or what I do. When they need my services they're quick to call, but when the invoice arrives they're slow to pay, or worse they dispute it.

I readily admit that this entire post stems from a situation that recently happened. A situation that has appeared resolved on several occasions, but that the client keeps stirring up. What got me to this point where I feel like I need to publicly vent my frustrations is that this client actually questioned my professionalism and integrity. That crossed a big line.

Up until that point I happily addressed the situation with this particular client. I returned all calls in a timely manner and everything. What saddens me more is that I once had great respect for this individual.

But tell me that I'm unprofessional and any respect that once existed is gone. Kaput!

So what's my point? I'm pissed off. I did nothing wrong and in the end will have to discount my fees so the client can save face in front of the boss. If I truly had no professionalism or integrity I would name the client, but that would also cross a line, and I don't do that.

So instead I'll sit here and stew about it while my boss deals with it. And I know that I will think long and hard before ever doing any work with this particular company ever again.

- Posted from my iPhone

Identity

Over the past couple of weeks I have "written" several posts for this blog in my mind.  None made it past that point as, at least to me, they all came across as being "preachy", "whiny", and one was even a little "bitchy".  I know that this is my blog and therefore, I write the rules.  However is that how I want you to think of me?

We all have our moments when we need to bitch and moan about something.  I would prefer to get it out of my system in a forum that's not recorded for all time for all to see.  What if a potential client or employer were to Google my name and click on such a post?  Is that how I want to be portrayed?  And the thought of being portrayed that way by me makes it worse as I have complete control over what I say.

So while I do want to make this blog successful by posting regularly, I am also very cognisant of what it is that I'm writing (or not writing in this case).

Pet Peeve

So I was reading Laurie's post yesterday on her blog about pet peeves.  We agree on a lot of things, not all cat related either.  It seems we both have issues with the "reply all" option on e-mails.

When you receive an e-mail as a part of a larger group (for instance, when a message is sent to the entire staff) it is not necessary to reply to the entire group.  It's great to receive an e-mail to notify you that there are fresh cookies in the office kitchen, it's not so great to receive 5 replies to that e-mail commenting on the quality of the cookies.

In my opinion at least, the "reply all" feature should be removed entirely from all e-mail programs.  At least make it hard for the user to find.  We all waste too much time each day as it is wading through e-mail, we don't need to waste any more.