It must be me having a bad month. Here’s a small collection of some very recent real-life experiences I’ve had that shine a light on how simple it is to screw up a great first impression with poor execution…

Zoho CRM is “at your Help”

A compatriot of mine mentioned Zoho CRM as a viable CRM option for our customers so I checked out the product. I was very impressed with their offering and thought I’d use it as my own production CRM for a while to compare against pricier solutions. A few days later I received what I’m 100% positive was a well intentioned email with the subject line “Zoho CRM – I am at your Help”. The message itself started out alright and then came “… I’m responsible to assist you”. Yuk. Great first impression followed up by a poor second one.

Lesson Learned

The first interactions from your business to a new/potential customer are absolutely critical. Have marketing or a PR person review them and use system email templates to ensure consistency. Heck, have your Mom proof read it if you have to!  Else, “risk not at helping company reputation!”

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RightNow CRM – “Ask for a Live Demo … later sometime. Maybe next week? We’re not sure.”

Right-Now CRM looked like a good fit for one of my customer’s needs. Great looking product that competes on price with other CRM vendors. Visited the site, clicked the big blue button that said “Ask for a Live Demo”, then … crickets. Nothing happened. The day went by and not so much as an email (“Uh, this IS a CRM solution, right?”). Later the next day I got a call from a super nice inside sales rep. After some understandable Q&A I was ready to schedule my “Live Demo”. Unfortunately all I got scheduled was ANOTHER discovery call with a regional sales rep and his SC so they could prepare and schedule the “Live Demo”. I’m ok with this though. I’d rather have a sales rep armed with more knowledge than less so the demo targets my needs. But lost in this shuffle is the big blue button “Schedule a Live Demo”. It’s been five days since I filled out the form plus a 20 minute prep call and I still have not scheduled the “Live Demo”. Seems like the immediacy of the button text doesn’t jive with reality.

Lesson Learned

Make sure you aren’t using verbiage that incorrectly sets expectations and risks disappointing your customers. In this case a simple “Schedule a Demo” would have been better than “Schedule a LIVE Demo”. It felt more urgent and immediate than it actually is and the result is me being underwhelmed out of the shoot. Also have a clock ticking that ensures a customer gets a response within a tight time-frame. If you can’t deliver it, fine. Soften the expectation a bit.

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Otherinbox.com – “We put your feedback in the other inbox.”

Ok this is a coupla months older but I just remembered it. I signed up for otherinbox.com in late March then cancelled it because it wasn’t a fit for me. I think it likely helps a lot of folks manage email better. What irked me was that as part of the cancellation process they provided one of those “we’re sorry to see you go” pages with a comments section. I took the time to enter my comments in the page so they’d have some feedback. Result? Crickets. I never heard from them again.

Lesson Learned

Don’t ask for a customer’s feedback if you aren’t prepared to respond to it or set the expectation up front that you won’t. Leaving no impression lets the customer/prospect assume you will. If Otherinbox.com had no intention of responding that’s perfectly acceptable as long as they say so. Then if they DID follow up with a personal note or a phone call I’d be impressed. I just searched my Gmail account and there’s nothing from them after the “Welcome to Otherinbox!” and the subsequent analysis alert. Not so much as confirmation that my feedback was heard, nor did my cancellation prompt a canned farewell message.

The bottom line is that out on the edges of any company and their products are oodles of customer touch-points that need to be carefully planned out. It’s important to reconcile messaging with an honest look at what you can actually deliver vs. what you would LIKE to deliver, or worse, BELIEVE you deliver but don’t. Start with the OUTSIDE and walk backwards toward your center rather than the other way around.