It is strange, what is happening to me, what has happened to me since I started reading Think and Grow Rich around two years ago. And working from it, earlier, let’s not forget about that. And now kind of living it. As somehow this whole thing, this whole experience has given me self confidence, more than I ever had before, more than I could ever imagine. As yesterday I was able to mention some very strange amounts to a sales representative of a very large company. And indicating that if they wouldn’t be willing to help me now, I would presume they are not interested in what I am working on, in my project. And yes, indicating that they would be out, not being considered as a supplier if they would indicate that my project needed to produce sales for them within three months or something, I would bypass them.
And the strange thing is that I meant it. I meant that I would not deal with them in the future if they would not consider me a serious customer right now. And I mentioned the amounts I stated, amounts that would be unimaginable to mention for me two years ago and before.
And don’t misunderstand me, as today I also felt sad, sad that big companies like this company consider themselves so powerful that they wouldn’t want to deal with customers with a time schedule of one to two years, which is I guess is quite common in projects like the one I am working on. Actually they stated something like “if you won’t order within three months we are not there for you, just come back when you are ready to order”. And that made me very sad, as it seems that they only consider customers with buying power, customers that will spend within three months. As what is three months anyhow. What can you do in that type of period, like the feasibility study stage I am in right now. Anyhow, it is their choice, but it is fully against everything what I have learned from Napoleon Hill, the idea that the customer comes first, that doing business, earning money, is all about giving service.
And I had another sample, as one of the hosting providers I am using made me believe they had cut off all the contact forms in all of the sites I am hosting there, where in the end it appeared they only took one site offline. But where I am a customer for years, they refused to put the site online for a week or so to sort out a problem they encountered. No, they just took it offline. So yes, I decided to move that site and sort out the problem later. And yes, the moving of the site probably cost more time than solving the problem itself. But I didn’t have time to fully check everything and being a web developer, an offline site is like a deadly sin. So I moved the site and I would have moved them all, were it not that some of the sites I am hosting there are very difficult to move.
But yes, they made an impression, a very bad one, and it won’t be easy to change my feeling about that company again towards the positive. And I guess I am not the only one. But yes, they are big and I am only one small customer. So who cares?
But I think in the end ignoring one customer can be fatal, can damage your business very much. And I learned that myself the hard way.
So for my new project my main priority is customer service. Give the customer what he wants and needs, no matter what. As in the end that is the only thing that counts. At least if you are building your business for the long term, which I normally prefer to do.
So yes, when I am big, when I have built these big companies, I hope I will remember all this. And maybe that is also why I had to start small and lose it all, in order to grow big and do better, not only for myself, but for the world.