Sunday, April 13, 2008

On Time?

Being on time is a minimum. Recently I have seen people be late (a lot!). From people that are to service you as a customer, to meetings, or event large corporate events. I believe that some think they appear important if they show up a few minutes late. I believe it is an ego thing. People who are late to events are telling you that they are more important than you.

I believe it is rude. Sure, there are circumstances that can cause people to be late. Call ahead, most understand. It even happens that you just didn't plan enough time. People are understanding if you let them know.

Why is this such a big deal?

1. Customer service. If reps cannot be on time before the sale, how do you think service will be after the sale?

2. Being late does not respect people.

3. Time is money. If I have to wait on you, you are costing me money.

Think about the last webinar/conference call you have been on. Most start 5 to 10 min late waiting on people. If they start on time, many times they have to go back and repeat information for 1 person when their may be 20 people on the call.

Recently I had a sales rep call on me. We set an appointment a month ahead of time. When the time came for the meeting, I was the only one there. First all, this rep should have called to confirm the appointment a day or to prior to the appointment. That was not done. So I sat thinking that this appointment had been forgot. I went back to work on other projects. About then in comes the rep for the appointment. No reason for being late, no explanation. Needless to say, we will not be doing business with that company.



This was a bit of a rant. I want to give shouts out to Stuart Crawford, I believe he also spoke of this topic once. Anyway, off to work, I am late...Just kidding.

1 comment:

Stuart R. Crawford said...

You are right Steve, I did have a chapter on this in my "Do You Have IT" book, available at http://www.doyouhaveit.ca.

I believe that being ontime is the single most critical element in business today.

I don't buy the excuse that you forgot, or didn't have time to call...that is biggest piece of bull. With the technology today it is even easier to call ahead...however many don't