I constantly hear legal software and hardware suppliers complaining how tough business is. “The recession is killing us,” they say. But many of these same vendors are guilty of not really wanting the business!
I visited a telephony company at the Legal Faire in Johannesburg a few weekends ago, explained my needs to them and they said they’d send me a quotation. To date, I haven’t heard a thing. And they were the third telephony vendor not to respond. It’s not like it was a tiny installation either. Perhaps times aren’t as tough as they say?
My second complaint is not much different from the first, although it applies to law firms as well as the IT vendors out there – and most other businesses, for that matter. Most businesses have a website these days, even if it is simply an electronic brochure. And it is normal for nearly all websites to have a “Contact Us” link. Unfortunately, the links don’t always work, sometimes because the recipient’s mailbox is full, the website is “faulty”, or the email address is no longer active. But often enough no-one is monitoring the communication that comes in via the “Contact Us” link. To these businesses I ask “Why do you have a website in the first place, if you aren’t going to respond to clients when they try to give you business?” My advice to all businesses is to appoint a single person to take responsibility for enquiries that come via the website. If not, you’ll be losing potentially good business!
Obviously the recession is not as bad as we think!
Contributed by:
Chris Pearson
AJS Practice Management
0861 COLESO
