Pen Circles - Small Business Owners: How A Bad Choice In Customer Service Staff Could Kill Your Business

Your customer service reps have a direct line to your customers. And, with the wrong person in that chain, your business could go down in flames. See the Discount-Mats story t

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Small Business Owners: How A Bad Choice In
Customer Service Staff Could Kill Your Business

Politics-and-government :: News :: Iraq-war :: Commentary

Most news and pundit sites who have covered this story have covered it on the basis of a company owned by an American Muslim of Pakistani descent, who is exhibiting anti-American sentiments or non-support of American troops during war time. But, I am going to tackle this item from a different point of view.

First the story that has been validated as TRUE by Snopes.com, the Urban Legends website: Army Sgt. Jason Hess of the 1st Calvary Division of the U.S. Army, serving in Taji, Iraq, was looking to acquire some sleeping mats for his troops. In a later interview, Hess stated that he wanted to acquire sleeping mats to ease the hardship of sleeping on the cold ground, which contains sand mites, sand flies and other disease carriers.

Because shipping to APO and FPO addresses requires additional handling on the part of the vendor, not all retail vendors are willing to ship APO/FPO. APO is short for Army Post Office or Air (Force) Post Office, and FPO is short for Fleet Post Office. Both are part of the U.S. military mail system for troops that are stationed outside of the U.S. While the cost of shipping to APO/FPO is not any more expensive, both do require additional processing and handling --- including the completion of U.S. Customs paperwork.

On Tuesday, Jan 16, 2007, Jason Hess sent the following to the contact email of one such company who offered this kind of product:

Do you ship to APO (military) addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for ships to APO first.

Much to his surprise, the following is what he received a few hours later, in response to his request:

SGT Hess,

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com

The Web-based company, registered to Faisal Khetani, of West Allis, Wisconsin, was forced to pull their site offline due to all of the bad press. The site has a disclaimer in place, suggesting the site is "Experiencing technical difficulties..." That a funny way to explain a "public relations nightmare."

How My Analysis Differs From The Others...

Everything I have read on this event so far has pointed to the anti-American sentiment expressed in the response. Some have even noted that the individual is blaming the troops for a policy, over which they have no control.

Although, I have strong feelings about blaming the troops who are simply doing a job that they have been assigned to do, I am going to address this whole issue from the perspective of "how to destroy a business".

This is Customer Service 101, and my guess would be that Faisal Khetani of Discount-Mats.com slept through that class.

According to a Milwakee radio station, WTMJ News Radio, "a Vice President with Bargain Suppliers, the website's parent company, confirms the email was sent. He says the employee who sent it is being held accountable and will be dealt with."

The email was sent to Sgt. Hess just six days ago. And now, this story is circling all of the conservative news and pundit websites and blogs. It is also making the rounds on top-tier news sites.

For now, the Discount-Mats.com website is down, and they are asking customers to call them for information about their orders. How long, I wonder, will their website actually be "Experiencing technical difficulties"?

With this much bad press, they might just have to resurrect under a new domain name, thereby losing all of the good publicity, search engine placement, and good will they have built with customers over the last 20 months of operation.

It was a simple deal. The customer service representative only had to say, "No, we do not do APO/FPO," and all would have been well. But instead, the rep decided to reject the simple email for a chance to air a political statement.

It kind of reflects back to those old Words Of Wisdom that essentially say that "there is no room in business for politics or religion."

Business is about making money. It is not about making potentially dangerous comments about politics or religion.

Discount-Mats.com may fire the employee, but that may not be enough to save the company. The bad press is already in place. But, if that employee's comments have led to the future collapse of the business, then several people may lose their jobs because of one inappropriate action by one person.

Of course, this does reflect poorly on company management as well. If they did not know that they had a "loose gun" in the customer service department, then they made a bad hiring decision. If they did know that this "loose cannon" in customer service might step on this landmine, then the company may have gotten exactly what they deserved.

As business owners, we must be careful not to put people in contact with our customers, who do not put the best interests of our business above all other interests. If you don't carefully select your customer service reps, you are leaving yourself wide open to meet the same fate as Discount-Mats.com. As a business owner, do you really want to leave the future of your company in the hands of someone who does not always protect the best interests of your company?

I certainly don't want to find myself in that position... I have worked too hard and put in too many hours to build my business, than to let some schmuck bring it down with one poorly-chosen sentence.

Bill Platt, President
Platt Services, Inc.
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Owner of Pen Circles.com

Politics-and-government :: News :: Iraq-war :: Commentary

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Small Business Owners: How A Bad Choice InCustomer Service Staff Could Kill Your Business

Small Business Owners: How A Bad Choice In
Customer Service Staff Could Kill Your Business