How not to receive feedback
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post I’d sent the business owner a message to say that I hadn’t appreciated the hard sell etc, and by the way, where had she gotten my contact details from? (my phone number isn’t on the website). I was polite, just very clear that I wasn’t happy. This was her response, sent to me two weeks later (there’s a clue, it took her two weeks to respond):
Hi Melinda,
We had your details in the database from a previous contact you’d had with ‘her life partner’- when you were interested in commission only salespeople. The two of you had a conversation and that’s how your details ended up in there.
Uh no, she’s wrong: I’d filled out a free website audit and he’d called me about that, and to try and sell me on a seminar to improve my website. I said no to that one too.
You were rude to him also (after asking for his help).
Wrong again: filling out a free website program does not constitute asking for help in my book. And we’d ended up having a really good conversation, turned out we had a couple of mutual connections. So… I was rude to him and he was still happy to continue a conversation off-topic and talk for nearly an hour? I don’t think so.
Don’t worry – we apologised profusely to ‘salesperson’ (Who was very upset at how rude you were to her) for having left you on the database – and removed you immediately.
Seriously, if she’s that sensitive then she shouldn’t be in telephone sales. I didn’t swear at her or abuse her in any way, nor did I hang up on her. I did interrupt her and speak over the top of her and told her that I didn’t appreciate her manipulative sales questions. Rude? I’d say the rudeness was on her side as she refused to accept my ‘No’ and kept pushing the sale.
As for all of your other comments … I could write a book … and actually, probably will – but look at the end of the day it comes down to this:
‘salesperson’ did nothing wrong.
If you understood sales – even a little bit – you’d know that she did precisely what she should have done.
Right down to burning you.
Really? Since when has it been accepted marketing practice to ‘burn’ a contact? Since when is it good salesmanship to push the sale when the person has told you very clearly ‘No’ three times?
And if I don’t understand sales ‘even a little bit’ then how have I run a successful online business for six years then?
Because you are not now, nor will you ever be our client.
I don’t want to “keep in contact with people” on the off chance that one day, maybe they might want to buy something.
Ok, so if I don’t want to buy your very expensive course today, you don’t want me to be able to contact you to buy it in six months time? Wow. How many contacts is she losing because they don’t buy today, right now?
On top of which – we sell. On the phone. Every day. If you had stayed on our database you would have gotten more calls from more sales people who you would have upset being mean to.
Maybe you should spend a bit of time looking at your own obvious issues around sales, rather than attacking 23 year old girls who are doing their jobs.
Yes, I have issues around sales. I have serious issues around pushy hard-sell sales people who won’t take no for an answer.
Attacking 23 year old girls who are doing their job? Sorry, wrong again. I never ‘attacked’ her in any way. Definitely not picking up any guilt for that. Don’t try and make it my fault because I disagreed with your staff.
Good luck with everything.
Rest 100% assured that NO ONE from my company will EVER contact you again … even if you begged us to.
I think I was supposed to be sad and sorry that they’ll never contact me again. Really, that was the best news I’d had all week. And I don’t beg.
Feedback is a part of business
No one is too precious to receive feedback. And it’s not all going to be good. Get over it. If someone took the effort to let you know that (in their opinion) there was something lacking in your business then the least you can do is thank them for the effort they took to write.
Note that I didn’t say you had to agree with the feedback and tell them you’d make changes. You don’t have to agree with it, you just have to be nice about it. Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.
Get over your own issues around feedback. It’s not always going to be a nice pat on the back. That kind of sycophantic feedback won’t help you improve and grow. If you get a brickbat thrown at you then consider if there’s any truth in it. If there is then take it on board and use it to improve. If there’s not truth in it then simply ignore it.
Attempting to bully and score over the person who sent it just exposes your own issues. And it’s really bad PR when they write a blog post that is seen buy thousands of readers who could have been their customers….
Melinda is the founder of SuperWAHM.com and started this site to share her best work from home ideas to help other Work At Home Mums become more financially independent and able to spend time with their families.
@ Lesley – feedback is never 100% positive. If it’s 100% positive then it’s a compliment… LOL. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. I can’t believe you’ve been yelled at, that’s shocking! Love your manure analogy! 🙂
Oh one of my pet peeves is this. You send feedback and you either a) get no response or b) they get narky. Sure i know that perhaps my feedback isn’t always 100% positive, but I make it constructive. I’ve actually been yelled at over the phone by a business after she didn’t agree with my feedback. But some business’ really need to take a good long look at themselves and wake up and smell the roses and learn otherwise soon all they’ll smell is the manure.
@ Barbara – it’s a big thing for me too. You don’t have to agree with me however I do expect to be treated politely.
@ Stacey – hehehehe, I certainly have issues, but they’re not around selling! I’ve found that when people react that strongly to something it’s usually because there are issues there. Methinks the business owner doth protest too much….
The correct and simple response to your email would have been:
Thank you for your feedback. While we strive for excellence in communication with potential customers, we realize that sometimes our sales technique can come across as pushy. We sincerely apologize for the interaction you experienced with our salesperson and will use this as an example of what not to do in subsequent trainings.
Thank you again for allowing us the chance to respond. We hope you will accept our apology. Please let us know if we may keep your name and number on our call list.
Sincerely,
XYZ
******
Wow, that took about 45 seconds! Seems you are not the one in need of help for “your own obvious issues”.
Oh.
My.
Earlobes!
You handled it with far more patience than would have I….once I know there’s a set spiel getting ready to spielize in which I’d prefer to watch paint dry instead, I will say, Thank you for your time, I am not interested, I am going to hang up now.
Then I hang up. Problem solved.
Respect of one’s wishes is a biiiig thing to me. You handled it great!
.-= Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..Hate normal text searching? Search instead by using pictures! Google Goggle =-.
@ Marc – LOL, good try! Not naming names, unless they irritate me again.
@ Katerina – I think I’m going to have to work on “I’m not interested and I’m hanging up now. Thanks for calling” and then hang up even if they’re saying something… I keep stopping to listen to what they’re saying…
@ Deb – *nods* Primary school is right. And the two week reply – that’s just bad customer service and/or business processes.
Wow. Primary school anyone? Because even if you had been completely rude and abusive, that is not the way to deal with it. That’s just petty and nasty, which makes you wonder about their maturity and therefore ability to run a business.
I find it interesting that this was after a two week delay. I understand someone lashing out immediately, not good but human. So why the delay? Does it take 2 weeks for them to read their emails? Is there some sort of inefficiency that means things aren’t passed to them straight away? Is this after they’ve been calming down for 2 weeks? Or did they stew on it and get more upset? Whichever, the delay indicates a problem just as much as the childish reply.
Hahaha! Good on you Melinda for standing up for yourself. People should be ashamed of themselves thinking that behaving like this is actually ok.
I don’t hesitate now to be really rude, even swear I don’t care how old the person on the phone is, if I say NO the first time…that’s what I mean.
Not really, since no names have been mentioned.