So, we have our house on the market. You all know the stress that comes with that. We got an offer this week, about a week after they viewed the place. Then they wanted an answer by the next morning. The prospective purchaser's realtor must have been a rookie as our counter-offer had about 10 line items in it which were just to correct the rookie blunders she made in the paperwork. Not to mention the fact that she went silent on our realtor for days at a time. Right now, as I write this, after wanting a 12 hour timeframe answer, we're still waiting to hear back from them, and she isn't responding to our realtor at all.
I was taught that, when people contact you, at the very least, you acknowledge their contact; preferably give them a timeframe for a response if you can't immediately respond, or tell the person what you're doing. This interaction has been the polar opposite of what we, at CitrusKiwi, view as a normal.
We all drop the ball
It's an unfortunate byproduct of being human - we all screw up sometimes. Decent people respect that if you own up to your part and put it right. Back in the 70's one of New Zealand's iconic retailers, and early mail-order marketers, was LV Martin & Son. They epitomized this attitude with their slogan, "If it's not right, we'll put it right and it's the putting right that counts."
At CitrusKiwi, we do our best to get it right the first time, but, to our annoyance, we're not immune to missing an email, forgetting a website update or a meeting, or <insert mess-up here>! What we do pride ourselves on is owning our mistakes and doing all we can to make it right. THAT is the proper way to do business. In our opinion.
Own it, and fix it!
A few years ago, we had a situation where Authorize.net (who we use for collecting our payments) failed to alert us to recurring payments of a number of our clients which failed. As we collect payments quarterly, it was some time when we found out clients were behind. To their credit, no one complained about having to catch up; until the catching up started happening. What we didn't realize was that Authorize.net would debit one missed payment the first night, another the next, and so on, until the client was caught up. This annoyed a couple of clients (though they actually owed the money and they hadn't reported we hadn't taken the money out of their account) and they got quite upset at us.
Rather than escalate the situation further, we just refunded one payment (that's 3 month's worth of service) and told them what we'd done. This had the desired outcome that we had happy customers again. Yes, it cost us quite a bit of income, and, no, it wasn't our fault (well, not totally), but, for us, it just seemed a good way for us to keep loyal clients.
Do you want a website company that's on your side?
If you're looking for a website design partner that cares for you and your business, then CitrusKiwi Web Solutions is a great choice. We don't see our job as just web designers, we like to think of the web design process as a partnership or collaboration between us and you. We take time to learn about you and your company, and make suggestions on what pages and features your website would benefit from.
Frustrated with another web design company that seems to be more interested in their check than your website? Or a designer who's AWOL? CitrusKiwi listens, and we pick up the phone. So why not call us today, and experience a new way of doing website design?
