In addition to running my marketing agency, I am also the Chairman of a business networking and training organisation called Yorkshire Managers. Because of my role as Chairman of this organisation, I was invited to a prestigious business dinner recently at a plush Thai restaurant in Leeds.
There were 10 of us there in total,
including senior managers from local universities, chambers of commerce, large
PLCs, and other local businesses. The food was absolutely delicious and the
service was superb. One of the attendees was a very professional young lady who
was in charge of marketing for this chain of restaurants. Her role was to go
round the table and explain more about what her restaurants could offer us as
business leaders, for example hiring private rooms within the restaurant for
business lunches, networking events, entertaining clients, etc.
At the end of the evening she handed
out her business cards to all the attendees along with some publicity materials
in a very snazzy ‘goody bag’. A wonderful
evening was had by all: great food, great service, and a very professional
host.
So the very next day I emailed our
host thanking her for a fantastic evening, and explaining I’d be very
interested to talk to her about the possibilities of using her restaurant for networking events and other business activities.
I added a ‘return receipt’ on the
email so I know that she did receive and read my message. I also included all
my contact details including address, email and phone number. So she had
absolutely no excuse for not responding to me in a timely manner.
But guess what? Two months have now
passed with no reply; no email; no phone call; no communication whatsoever. And
as I write this article, she still hasn’t been in touch with me.
So regretfully, I will probably
approach a different restaurant (one of her rivals) with a view to using their
facilities instead.
How sad that a company can do
everything so well, and yet fall down at the final hurdle, simply because they
were so slow to respond to a communication from an eager potential customer.
Moral of this story
Even if you have a fantastic product,
it is pointless making a lot of effort with your marketing unless you respond
quickly and efficiently when potential customers show an interest. The early
bird almost always gets the worm.