Big Guru, Small Staff, Big Customer Service Problem

Today a friend of mine brought someone to my office for an introduction.

We had a great conversation.

He is positioned in a major way in the medical niche being the admin and developer behind:

www.onfile.com

He also operates in a few other niches.

Toward the end of our conversation he casually mentioned he joined a coaching program of an Internet Marketing Guru.

He said that though he had paid he never received his coaching.

He also mentioned that he had received a subscription to a periodical and his credit card had expired but the periodical kept coming.

He also mentioned that he had another associate who had paid the same marketer more than a thousand dollars for coaching and never received it until 15 months later someone called from the marketer's office following up with him

These guys do not really need the coaching they just liked the pitch and thought it sounded interesting.

He said that because this marketer's customer service was so bad that he decided to never buy anything else off him again and not to promote him as well.

As you can imagine he is well connected to some major markets.

He said he wondered how the company could be successful when they cannot even keep track of their customers and fulfill their commitments.

Recently I had a bad experience with fulfillment and customer service from another popular internet marketing company... they too have a huge coaching program.

At this point they could still change my opinion but I feel that I should not buy off them again nor recommend anyone to them because I'd hate to give a personal recommendation to a client that would be treated poorly or feel buyer's remorse because of poor delivery and support.

We see the stories again and again... big launch... big wait... big disappointment.

Not all... but many.

From time to time disappointment is due to false hopes and dreams built upon a combination of hype and self deception...

But many times disappointment is due to a small company that wants to make big bucks and takes far more orders than they are able to provide support and timely fulfillment for.

Sometimes these companies use new or untested fulfillment services for their major launches without doing the necessary logistical planning and without preparing for the onslaught of customer service issue that are bound to be generated.

They then blame the issues on their fulfillment houses or the large volume of orders they accepted.

To me this is not a legitimate excuse.

Sure it happens... its a good problem to have if you are the seller... sometimes...

But if you are the customer or the person who recommended the customer to the company it is not a good problem to have.

And when the fulfillment never happens, takes months, or the materials arrive and do not work as intended... or maybe as with one famous launch in a DVD format that cannot be played on a computer when they are being delivered to a computer based market...

Well I am sure you get the picture.

So while I and others are deciding on who to do business with and who to endorse to our client bases on into the future based on our good or bad experiences and the satisfaction levels of our friends, clients, and associates and based on legitimate praise or complaints voiced in communities and review sites online...

What should these gurus do to ensure that their launch is not just a one sided victory of the bank account but rather a smooth experience for the client as well?

Is this why Rick Raddatz always opened and closed the doors a few times during the launches of his services before eventually leaving them open?

I am sure all of us would love to have the problem of so much volume its coming out our ears but what do you do next to ensure there is not a meltdown and people not only receive what they ordered in a timely manner but feel that they received what they paid for and were treated with respect?