I don’t want to sound like a complainer, but I’ve had bad experiences with many types of suppliers, including so-called professionals, this year.
I’ll try to keep examples brief. Almost everyone I’ve dealt with this year has been no more than transactional and far, far worse.
Now, transactional isn’t bad if you keep things strictly business. I’m not talking about getting familiar with your supplier. Just straightforward relationships.
However, as I said, a lot has gone awry. Why? Transactional bankers who take more than a week to reply to a simple email. Then they cover themselves with any one of many excuses.
That seems to be a theme. Everyone has so many excuses for not responding or doing what you’ve requested. Today, there is no guilt, no conscience.
Estate agents who are not even impartial. If you are the seller, they support the buyer.
Ordinary suppliers, like plumbers, have no relationship and don’t want a relationship at all but are only out to screw you for as much money as they can get out of you.
I’m not sure if the plumber I dealt with was even strictly legal.
I don’t mind a transactional relationship, but one that is professional and efficient, and you can at least have some faith or trust in the person.
I’ve yet to come across any supplier where the relationship can go deeper, and that includes investment advisors.
It’s all just transactional.
What can be done? I’m not one for spouting advice. But I think anyone who wants to find an opportunity to provide a high level of service, especially consultants, needs to at least deliver the goods.
They also need to be trustworthy. Not like these estate agents who become uncommunicative or, even worse, withhold information from you.
You think I’m joking about this sort of behavior, but I have experienced it.
Another thing is to have common decency, or, put another way, to have manners. Some suppliers don’t even have manners. All they want is your money, and they want it now.
So those are two important things. Delivering the goods and being trustworthy.
There are a host of other characteristics for suppliers who want to deliver good service. We can go into that at some other time because it’s quite a deep subject when you get down to what effective service is.
I did have one supplier which was a second plumber who gave me good service, was honest and businesslike.
Of course, I might just be a person who picked the wrong people to support me in whatever business I was involved with this year. But I doubt it. I think there’s just so much of this going on now that it’s hard to turn things around.
But an opportunity lies waiting for those business people who can construct an effective service system in 2024.
