Did They Forget Why?

Why would anyone want to do business with you and your company? You can speak to this issue from your perspective or you can stop and ask the market why they might engage. Your perspective doesn't really matter but the markets perspective is your business reality.

Many businesses make the mistake of believing their own rhetoric. They think they have the best products or services and tout them in slick marketing messages. Used to "pushing" out their propaganda they become self consumed in how wonderful they think they really are. When they hear negative comments from the marketplace they simply deny them or ignore them. I am sure you've seen, heard and experienced this either in the workplace or the marketplace.

Don't Forget Why You Are In Business

A business is an entity whose purpose is to satisfy a market with produces or services. The marketplace represents employees, suppliers, distributors, investors and consumers. Many businesses focus on the end consumer while forgeting that the end consumer cannot effectively be served without total synchronization of the entire supply chain of people, processes, products and technology. Many businesses forget that without total synchronization of the entire supply chain of people, processes, products and technology the end consumer cannot be served efficiently and effectively.

Let me give you a perfect example. I am a diabetic and I used the Minimed Medtronics insulin pump. Without this pump and the related suppliers my health can deteriorate very fast. I recently needed to stock up on my supplies so I went to the Minimed online store to place my order. Three days after placing my order I received a generic email from MiniMed which stated I have a balance due of $31.25 and until the balance was paid my order could not be shipped. This was the first I knew of the open balance.

I went to their web site to make payment on the balance so I could get my supplies. Finding the payment functions was a disaster and consumed 30 minutes of my time. I made the payment and anxiously awaited my supplier order since I was running low on supplies.

One week went by and no delivery from MiniMed. My supplies were down to less than one week of use. I then went back to the MiniMed web site and found a toll free number to call and inquiry as to the status of my order. This is where the nightmare began.

My call, after eight rings, was answered by an automated message indicating "our operators are all busy servicing other clients please wait. You wait time is approximately eight minutes" Eight minutes to answer my call!!! Ten minutes went by then someone answered the call and I explained my purpose. The person on the other end said I'll transfer you to billing.....I tried to stop them and say I don't need billing I need order status...however they had already transferred me. The transfer put be into another automated message which said "our operators are all busy servicing other clients please wait. You wait time is approximately eight minutes". Urrr... Eleven minutes later someone answers! This person then ask me questions about my billing issue of which I then say "I've paid my bill all I want is my order shipped overnight....I am running out of time! This time the person but me on hold then looped in the right person I needed to talk to about my supplies order. The individual apologized for the difficulty and promised to ship my order out overnight.

The order arrived two days later and to my total surprise and frustration they had shipped the wrong supplies! Subsequently I had to go through the entire process all over again which took me another hour on the phone to get to the right person and straighten out their error. A lot of wasted time and stress for something that is vital to my health. MiniMed, while owning the market of insulin pumps and supplies, forgot why they were in business and subsequently has designed the organization, the processes, the people and technology to be totally anti-social. How is that for marketing & PR?


What say you?