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Better Communication

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Garrett Groll, Dec 1, 2014.

  1. Garrett Groll

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    It seems to take you guys quite some time to reply to messages. I've tried email, Facebook, and your contact form on the site. Sometimes all three at once. I think it's important that you guys know what your customers are thinking about your business, as I'm sure you'll agree. To be completely honest, I feel as though you guys aren't even checking your inboxes at times. Other times, when you do finally get around to replying, it's a couple days later. If it's simply because you're too busy, hiring someone to just answer questions and get back with people would do your company a lot of good. Better yet, hire someone to answer an actual telephone. I don't mean to come across as a over picky customer, but I'm sure others would agree with me that your communication is lacking. In fact, I know others agree with me because they're complaining about the same things I am on your Facebook page, as seen in the screenshots below. My main reason for posting this is because I'm frustrated with the lack of communication I received today which ended up costing me money. Check your inbox for the contact form regarding order #9858. I tried contacting you guys at 7:45am via email, fb, and contact form to see if you were going to run a cyber monday deal, but got no reply. So I went ahead and placed my order anyways because I was needing the parts. I placed that order around noon and you guys ended up announcing a cyber monday deal around 1:00pm. I was just like, "you have to be kidding me!"
    Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 4.58.50 PM.png Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 4.59.43 PM.png Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 5.00.36 PM.png
     
  2. Garrett Groll

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    To be fair, OpenBuilds got back with me today and offered store credit for the savings I missed out on. Thanks guys! However, there are still some communication gaps that should be addressed. You guys have such a great product which makes the communication problem that much more frustrating. OpenBuilds has so much untapped potential! You could be such a great company.
     
  3. brbubba

    brbubba New
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    Expecting that kind of response from a small time operation like this is highly unrealistic and quite frankly absurd. You're basically suggesting they tailor their business operations solely to meet your individual needs. If you need that kind of attention I suggest you start ordering parts from Misumi, Mcmaster, 80-20, etc.
     
  4. Garrett Groll

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    o_O...and I would completely disagree. I know plenty of small businesses who do an exceptional job of getting back with customers. If OpenBuilds is too small to get back with potential & already paying customers, then I would suggest hiring someone to just handle the communications. Hence my original post, "hiring someone to just answer questions and get back with people would do your company a lot of good".
    Suggesting that they tailor their business operations solely to meet my needs? Where on earth did you pull that from? I'm simply saying that money is being left on the table as a result of poor communication. Getting back with people will translate to more sales.
     
  5. brbubba

    brbubba New
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    There are a number of issues floating around here, let's attempt to clarify them...

    For starters, you haven't addressed what is an acceptable response time. On the one hand you say it takes them a couple of days (I'm assuming 2 days), but then in your later communication you get a same day (<1 day) response and seem ok with that. So is a 1 day response acceptable?

    Second, you saying you know other small businesses that have better communications means absolutely nothing. We don't know how much revenue openbuilds make, how many employees they have (although I'm assuming it's just the husband and wife team) and how they allocate their time nor do we know any of this information about other businesses.

    Third, money is not being left on the table if the cost to respond faster (possibly including to hire someone) exceeds the cost in additional profit. In fact, in that situation, they would be burning money to accomodate your needs.

    Lastly, if you want world class service and you don't feel that openbuilds is able to deliver it and you don't want to source parts from another supplier, maybe you should instead be asking if they have any plans to start reselling through larger distributors.
     
    JustinTime likes this.

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