I am sure that most of you consider your smart phone to be an over-all useful tool for your business.
you may want to pay attention to HOW you use it- because in some cases it may be losing you business.
I offer the following cautionary tale:
This past Oct. my company was very busy-as it usually is in October --------as customers are anxious to have their roofs in good shape before winter.
In Sept. I had Emailed our printer letting him know we were going to want to send out more than our usual amount of mailings in Oct.
Our first mailing went out as usual-----and as usual we got our predicted rate of response . I sent the printer an Email in Oct. instructing him to send out our next mailing in 3 groups- 2100 cards on date X, the next group of 2100 cards to a different area 7 days later on date Y and the next group of cards to a separate area 14 days after the date y mailing on date Z.
a few hours after sending that Email I got a reply email----------very short-------acknowledging he understood the plan.
I went back to handling my very busy oct.
Oct. wound down, November began and our work load began to peter off as it usually does-------------- As I wound up our season I began to wonder about those last mailings.
A day or so later I received an Email from the printer asking about those mailings.
turns out-even though dates X and Y have passed and Date Z was fast approaching- the printer hand not printed or mailed anything.
I printed out the email he had sent me acknowledging my instructions back in Oct. regarding these mailings and took it in to his office. I left it with his receptionist because he was out of the office making sales calls.
2 hours later I get an Email reading "oops, Sorry!-that's what I get for reading your emails on my smart phone"
As of today-------------the final mailings STILL are not out
Needless to say we will be dealing with a different printer in 2014.
Unless I tell the first printer- he will never know WHY I stopped doing business with him. I figure I am not his largest account by anymeans--- but we were still several thousands of dollars per month x 8 months a year for the forseeable future.
the reason I mention this here on this forum is that almost every day I see some sort of mis-communication in one or more threads where one of the parties fess's up to having botched reading a thread on a smart phone.
so- if it happens here- it may well be happening to some degree within some of your businesses-and you may never know it.
Most contractors pride themselves on being the sort of guys who think well on their feet
the reality is, many are not as adept at thinking on their feet as they would like to believe.
BTW-- in hindsight I believe I could have handled the situation much better.- I make no excuses about this------ there is a simple reason I was not on top of the situation- but that is still no excuse.
The reason is- that for 25 plus years I was primarily a "one man band"-assisted by a few subs and I was easily able to stay on top of all situations
But the past few years I have consistently grown past "one man band status" ,investing in employee training, benefits, equipment etc. and the last year or so preparing to put down my tools.
Very simply we are past the point where I can effectively lead hour to hour operations on site- while also effectively managing everything else.
The situation with the printer is indicative of this. If I had dropped tools sooner I would have caught the situation earlier. It was my responsibility to do so.
Growing pains, right ?
luckily I have a younger man I have been grooming for several years to step into the on-site lead role-and another man ready to step into the leads former role..........
Best wishes, all-and watch those smart phones, LOL
Stephen
you may want to pay attention to HOW you use it- because in some cases it may be losing you business.
I offer the following cautionary tale:
This past Oct. my company was very busy-as it usually is in October --------as customers are anxious to have their roofs in good shape before winter.
In Sept. I had Emailed our printer letting him know we were going to want to send out more than our usual amount of mailings in Oct.
Our first mailing went out as usual-----and as usual we got our predicted rate of response . I sent the printer an Email in Oct. instructing him to send out our next mailing in 3 groups- 2100 cards on date X, the next group of 2100 cards to a different area 7 days later on date Y and the next group of cards to a separate area 14 days after the date y mailing on date Z.
a few hours after sending that Email I got a reply email----------very short-------acknowledging he understood the plan.
I went back to handling my very busy oct.
Oct. wound down, November began and our work load began to peter off as it usually does-------------- As I wound up our season I began to wonder about those last mailings.
A day or so later I received an Email from the printer asking about those mailings.
turns out-even though dates X and Y have passed and Date Z was fast approaching- the printer hand not printed or mailed anything.
I printed out the email he had sent me acknowledging my instructions back in Oct. regarding these mailings and took it in to his office. I left it with his receptionist because he was out of the office making sales calls.
2 hours later I get an Email reading "oops, Sorry!-that's what I get for reading your emails on my smart phone"
As of today-------------the final mailings STILL are not out
Needless to say we will be dealing with a different printer in 2014.
Unless I tell the first printer- he will never know WHY I stopped doing business with him. I figure I am not his largest account by anymeans--- but we were still several thousands of dollars per month x 8 months a year for the forseeable future.
the reason I mention this here on this forum is that almost every day I see some sort of mis-communication in one or more threads where one of the parties fess's up to having botched reading a thread on a smart phone.
so- if it happens here- it may well be happening to some degree within some of your businesses-and you may never know it.
Most contractors pride themselves on being the sort of guys who think well on their feet
the reality is, many are not as adept at thinking on their feet as they would like to believe.
BTW-- in hindsight I believe I could have handled the situation much better.- I make no excuses about this------ there is a simple reason I was not on top of the situation- but that is still no excuse.
The reason is- that for 25 plus years I was primarily a "one man band"-assisted by a few subs and I was easily able to stay on top of all situations
But the past few years I have consistently grown past "one man band status" ,investing in employee training, benefits, equipment etc. and the last year or so preparing to put down my tools.
Very simply we are past the point where I can effectively lead hour to hour operations on site- while also effectively managing everything else.
The situation with the printer is indicative of this. If I had dropped tools sooner I would have caught the situation earlier. It was my responsibility to do so.
Growing pains, right ?
luckily I have a younger man I have been grooming for several years to step into the on-site lead role-and another man ready to step into the leads former role..........
Best wishes, all-and watch those smart phones, LOL
Stephen
