Irony of customer satisfaction!

We have a strong relationship for over 3 years with a reputed client, with 2 mission critical systems delivered and being maintained by us. We get multiple repeat orders from them every year. I thank them for their business.

We were recently restricted from bidding for a relatively large project by the client saying that we are too small to bid for the project. The BRD for the project is written by us. This almost felt like a slap for providing delighting service to the customer over years at a price no one can beat! I don’t know how to react and hence this blog post.

The lesson I learned from this is that its not always timely service at reasonable cost with good technical capabilities (overall, proven track record) and personal relationships, that help you grow. There are other factors at play beyond pure value-proposition that determine the choice of a vendor. Immediate reaction to this was that we increased our pricing to make sure we increase our profitability, as that is what they look for before awarding bigger contracts. This immediately increased the cost for them to get things done on time. This seems to be more win-win situation than when we used to work to please the customer with lower cost and better service. Seems ironical but true! I can’t thank them enough for opening my eyes and motivating me to focus on our profitability than on their.

These type of situations and the lessons one learns is what makes entrepreneurship so much challenge and fun!


Comments

Faiz Wahid said…
This is a wonderfully written consize piece of learning. Thanks for sharing it. I completely agree that their is a glass cieling at work within large organizations which we as employees or consultants tend to hit inspite of having the capabilities to deliver the job. Some aspects which have little association to the deliverables becomes more important to the risk-averse corporate decision makers as opposed to the visionary leaders who are willing to give opportunities to passionate business partners.
4:58 AM
Faiz Wahid said…
This is a wonderfully written consize piece of learning. Thanks for sharing it. I completely agree that there is a glass cieling at work within large organizations which one as an employee or consultant tends to hit, inspite of having the capabilities to deliver the job. Some aspects which have little association to the deliverables becomes more important to the risk-averse corporate decision makers as opposed to visionary leaders who are willing to share opportunities with more passionate business partners rather than limiting their choices by following standard operating procedures or risk mitigation checklists.
5:07 AM
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