Customer service??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

customers should be understanding as well.

---

In the nearly 6 years I've been running my own businesses, there's one absolute I've learned: customers are rarely understanding.

One unique aspect of ball pythons are the fundamental differences between this business and most other businesses. This business tends to function as a hybrid of hobby and business (with varying degrees of preference towards one or the other).

I tend to think that's exactly what makes this business both unique AND amazing. However, as this industry pushes closer and closer to the retail market, the most successful are going to be those that understand how to balance the two. The hobbyist pours their soul into the work they love, the business person allows that love to flourish and (hopefully) profit.

As much as pushy customers, and lack of sleep can be frustrating, the very fact that you love what you are doing gives you a hand up on the overwhelming majority of people in the world ;).

Sorry about the rant :D.

To quote the estimable Warden Martin (and Luke), "What we got here is a failure to communicate." :)

I think the main problem I have with the breeder's response was the phrasing... I don't know if he was just trying to push Josh into buying right then (by hinting that the snake may not be there tomorrow), but it was a mistake IMO.

Even if the breeder had no intention of snapping any photos, it would've been better if he just said he was very busy/out of town and would be able to take some on whatever day he actually could (or, as another poster mentioned, just not return the email until Monday- I'm sure you don't get a response back from a huge breeder within hours normally). It was not necessary to hint at Josh's possible loss in the process.

As for deposits, I think the whole point is that Josh wasn't ready to put down money on the snake without seeing more of it. Don't most breeders have non-refundable deposits? If the snake is 4K they would probably want $400-ish to hold it.

Whatever happens next, the breeder should've treated it like a serious inquiry and either told him up front when he would get his pics (not saying he should rush, but tell the customer WHEN they'll get service if you can't give it immediately) or held off on responding until he had time to handle it properly (I prefer option 1). :)

Just the :2cent: of someone who has dealt with literally thousands of businesses. :)

Excellent post!

I think the seller could have worded his response a bit differently, but quite honestly there have been some amazing posts here.

Yes, I have really enjoyed following this thread!

Just thought Id let all those who have been following this thread I have choosen a different breeder and I'm kinda glad I got shunned by the other guy bc I found a better looking clown. I'll be getting some more pics of her sometime today and hopefully Ill have her sometime this week... Little birthday present for me!! (23 on October 30th)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JoshJP7

Just thought Id let all those who have been following this thread I have choosen a different breeder and I'm kinda glad I got shunned by the other guy bc I found a better looking clown. I'll be getting some more pics of her sometime today and hopefully Ill have her sometime this week... Little birthday present for me!! (23 on October 30th)

---

Well that's good news Josh. Congrats!

Look, I used to (as a side hobby) breed some rarer dwarf and rift lake cichlids. It was not uncommon to have up to a dozen daily inquiries depending on the type of fish.

Let's say out of those dozen inquiries, four wanted photos of the individual fish and eight were interested in buying without the photos. I'd tell the four straight up that the representative pics in my ad were all I had and that when I had the time, I would take some addtional photos of the actual fish they wanted. I would be up front in saying that in the meantime, if someone came along who paid for the animal - it was sold.

Does that make me a scumbag? I'd like to think not.

Does that make the person who wanted photos unreasonable? Definately not. Although it is much more difficult to take individual photographs of dozens of apistogramma fry and telmatochromis dhonti than a few young snakes......

All it means is that the first person to plunk his money down got the fish. If after a couple of days I had no other offers and was able to post some pics to satisfy those who needed to see the exact fish in question - well good for them.

I've bought most of my snakes on line, and I did not and would not buy them without pictures of the animal. If however, the breeder was able to sell the snake to someone willing to buy it sight unseen - I understood.

If someone is planning to make a business selling snakes, they should invest an evening into photographing and labeling each snake for either their website, their ad or just for e-mailing to potential customers.

I'm actualy fairly certain I know the breeder who this was started about and the one you went to. Both are very nice looking clowns.

If it was my money to be spent and I felt that the seller ( of anything not just snakes) was blowing me off or not making any attempt to acomadate my inquiry I would bid him adieu and vote with my feet. And it is for that reason that the seller should be willing to make the effort to close the deal. I would not be angry, I would just be gone

The breeder I went with is Cory at Bradford Cole... I dont think hell mind me throwing out his name bc the female clown he produced is real nice!!... I'll leave the other breeder out for you to guess:)... Could have been a 1 time occourance with him and hes usually on his game or whatever. I'm not gonna put his name out there bc I dont think its anything major and Im not that kind of person... It just didnt work out for me... Hopefully it was just a 1 time thing... Should have this girl paid off early this week and hopefully snuggled in her home before the end of the week... Pics as always:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MikeC1212

You(the customer) are always right.

---

NO NO NO NO NO!!! the customer is NOT always right! this is one of the most annoying phrases! i work in a pharmacy. if we had that policy, alot of our patients would be dead right now. if you ran a retail store and somebody came up to the counter and said 'i want this but i think it's only worth $x so that's all i'm going to pay for it' would you sell it for the price they demanded? or if you worked in a toy store and somebody bought a toy that needed some assembly and they demanded that you drop everything to put it together for them right now, would you???

I was pretty sure you went with Cory, I was drooling over that reduced pattern clown girl of his for awhile now. Good luck.

I'll agree, the customer is NOT always right. I work in customer service and if business actually followed that policy they'd be out of business quite quickly.

I think that phrase is very basic... as in the customer buys your product and keep you in business ...you do everything you can to make them happy because "theyre always right"... not ... I want a double dose of oxycodone instead of 1 bc i need it and the doctors wrong... Does that make sense?

Yeah shes an awesome looking snake... What was most important to me in a clown is a solid stripe down the back... his was the only one that didnt have any breaks in it... He sent me some more pics today n she looks real goo... shes a beefy girl at 522g full which is pretty good seeing she was born in July.

howcome everytime i mention pharmacy everyone mentions oxycontin? jeez....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by python.princess

NO NO NO NO NO!!! the customer is NOT always right! this is one of the most annoying phrases! i work in a pharmacy. if we had that policy, alot of our patients would be dead right now. if you ran a retail store and somebody came up to the counter and said 'i want this but i think it's only worth $x so that's all i'm going to pay for it' would you sell it for the price they demanded? or if you worked in a toy store and somebody bought a toy that needed some assembly and they demanded that you drop everything to put it together for them right now, would you???

---

This seems to me to be comparing apples and oranges. The bottom line for a breeder is probably in reality supply and demand. If the breeder felt that people were standing in line to buy his clowns then his response to a request for pictures was a logical one. If he felt that there is a fair chance that he might watch his clown hatchlings grow into big clowns then maybe his response to a potential buyer wasnt too smart. I myself would have just found another breeder who seemed more interested in making a sale, as it ended up playing out in this case.

Its what I got when I broke my arm in 4 places a couple yrs ago... its good stuff and I'm glad they gave me a refill... I only ended up using like 10 pills for the pain after my surgery so I had a bunch left over... I dont abuse them at all... take maybe 1-2 every 6 months n still have more than 1/2 my refill left... I dont usually get any head aches or pains but its nice to have those when you do... Prolly the only thing good that came out of that experience hhahaha.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by python.princess

NO NO NO NO NO!!! the customer is NOT always right! this is one of the most annoying phrases! i work in a pharmacy. if we had that policy, alot of our patients would be dead right now. if you ran a retail store and somebody came up to the counter and said 'i want this but i think it's only worth $x so that's all i'm going to pay for it' would you sell it for the price they demanded? or if you worked in a toy store and somebody bought a toy that needed some assembly and they demanded that you drop everything to put it together for them right now, would you???

---

Now, that's being silly. The phrase, "the customer is always right" isn't about whether or not they are actually right, it's about how you treat the customer. Customers can be wrong, but as a person who runs a business, we have to take responsibility, even for their mistakes.

In other words, the phrase means, never tell the customer they are wrong, even when they are. It has nothing to do with the customer choosing prices, or asking for the incorrect prescription.

Luckily in my job I CAN tell the customer they're wrong. There is something so very hard about being responsible that they can't seem to grasp. Ug I could rant all day. However, for those who DO need to rant there are the 'customerssuck.com' forums. You have options of
A. Reading stories of nightmare customers

or

B. Posting stories of nightmare customers


It does a darn good job of making you apreciate the good ones.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jhall1468

Now, that's being silly. The phrase, "the customer is always right" isn't about whether or not they are actually right, it's about how you treat the customer. Customers can be wrong, but as a person who runs a business, we have to take responsibility, even for their mistakes.

In other words, the phrase means, never tell the customer they are wrong, even when they are. It has nothing to do with the customer choosing prices, or asking for the incorrect prescription.

---

but how do you treat them as if they're right, but also do what is ACTUALLY right? wouldn't you be contradicting yourself?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by python.princess

but how do you treat them as if they're right, but also do what is ACTUALLY right? wouldn't you be contradicting yourself?

---

Who cares if you contradict yourself? I've worked (too) many years in an industry where the customers expectations often exceed technical capabilities (not to mention their wallets), but you learn ways of blaming them without actually blaming them. "The budget for this project really doesn't have the room for that feature." It was their fault, I didn't take responsibility for it, but I didn't say, "You're not paying me enough to do that." ;).

At the end of the day, placing blame on customers (or more importantly, informing them they are at fault) is going to cause more problems than its worth. Fundamentally, the quesiton you have to ask yourself is whether it's more important to be right, or to be employed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jhall1468

"The budget for this project really doesn't have the room for that feature."

---

hehehe... smooth.... unfortunately, my work is more black and white... no room to bs them into submission. lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jhall1468

Who cares if you contradict yourself? I've worked (too) many years in an industry where the customers expectations often exceed technical capabilities (not to mention their wallets), but you learn ways of blaming them without actually blaming them. "The budget for this project really doesn't have the room for that feature." It was their fault, I didn't take responsibility for it, but I didn't say, "You're not paying me enough to do that." ;).

At the end of the day, placing blame on customers (or more importantly, informing them they are at fault) is going to cause more problems than its worth. Fundamentally, the quesiton you have to ask yourself is whether it's more important to be right, or to be employed.

---

You are 100% right. Sometimes it's better to just kill them with kindness so you can get done and move on.

The bottom line is what counts and good service = referrals = more work = more $, thats we go to work.

You can't please every customer but it's a good idea to try:D

I also have my own business and all my work is referred and plentiful, it's the best advertisment you could ever want.

Now the medical industry is different. That is life or death/health, no room for mistakes or problems.

Sorry for being so cliche ..Melanie. Especially with such a general statement.

I think it's been brought up that the pharmacy and ball pythons are apples and oranges. I don't need to comment on that.

As far as the toy assembly.. Is that my job? Would I work in a store that required toys to be assembled before a purchase? Because if that was the store's policy, then yes, I would. If not.. then why would I?

I guess that brings us to.. is it policy to send pictures of a snake when a potential customer asks? I guess that would be the customers opinion. Obviously too much oxycontin will kill you.. which (to you) means the customer is NOT always right. So who knows???


This is how I know, when buying a snake, I will always be right:

Someone doesn't do what I like, send pictures/drop the price/whatever, I walk. I was right. I didn't pay too much or contribute to someone who conducts poor business.

I guess the same thing goes for the breeder. In their eyes, maybe they were right for not dropping the price or wasting time sending pictures. The only difference is they have a snake to sell.