How to lose customers

Yoga is something that I definitely support and suggest to any professional who needs to relax and do some mild exercise to stay fit and to keep the body from aches and pains.

It's funny that yoga ended up being the source of stress for us today.

My wife and I had booked a yoga class for 10am in the morning. I ended up with some food poisoning the night before so I ended up with very little sleep and an upset stomach. I wasn't going to make it to yoga.

My wife helped me call them up and cancel my booking. Here's what they said:

"Oh, well, you need to cancel 4hrs before the class (that would mean getting up at 6am just to cancel!) so since it's about 3hrs before the class you're husband will need to provide a medical note to be able to complete the cancellation otherwise a HK$150 charge will be applied".

This wasn't the first time it's happened.

You can imagine we just hit the roof when we heard this. This is how you treat your customers? Now, we're reasonable people. We understand the "theory" behind having a cancellation charge. But normally your customers won't really have the time or the energy to book a class and cancel for the fun of it.

I understand why their management has this policy. However, the fact that it's only to protect themselves rather than be something that is there for the greater good of their customers
is very obvious.

The receptionist even confessed to us that many customers had previously complained about this ridiculous policy. We complained 2yrs before about the same thing. Obviously, the management doesn't care about their existing customers nor does it put much importance on customer feedback.

So, we've done what any self-respecting customer would do, we cancelled our membership. Money gone from their bottom-line.

The lesson here is, does your company make it difficult on your customers? Do you have policies that are obviously to protect yourselves and put all the risk in your customer's hands? If so, you may be losing revenue and customers.

International business to business marketing

One of the most frustrating things I've encountered as a b2b marketer is the assumption that what works in one market will work in another market.

That's either lazy or narrow-minded.

If you're a manager of an international company or overlook the global marketing operations of your company, don't make this costly mistake of taking what works in one market and rolling the same thing out in another market.

Listen to your frontline staff who are on the ground in the local market. They will know what works and what doesn't. If they tell you that what you presume will work because it worked wonders in another market doesn't work in their local market. Listen carefully.

Also, I'm pretty sure that most international marketing departments will differ in terms of procedures, terminology used, practices and methods so basing your marketing efforts on your local point-of-view can mean you're making false assumptions.

So, next time your frontline marketing staff tell you it's been tested and it doesn't work for them, give them the benefit of the doubt.