Yesterday, our company’s ancient computer died, with it killing the internal systems we use to manage advertising and circulation data and resources. These systems were old — very old (in the computer space, that is), approaching a decade or even more without upgrading. As business hard-times hit, they chugged along. A computer/software consultant tried what was supposed to be an inexpensive rebuild. As the costs approached a couple of thousand dollars I said: “Stop.” Pouring money into maintaining this old stuff is like keeping an old clunker of a car on the road; if it runs without major maintenance or safety concerns, keep it running, but when it dies, it will die.
So I set in motion backup plans, and by that, I don’t mean the conventional computer back-up models as the old computer’s tape backup system had become toast, as well, and the consultant didn’t bother installing and properly demonstrating the new one. I fired the consultant, as a result, and told him we would pay his final bill when we had some surplus cash for unnecessary needs.
I told staff to keep paper records of anything important and investigated a web-based system which would meet our needs. With monthly payments we could have signed up for the system and installed it, but I held off, figuring we could save a few dollars and manage until we needed it. Not surprisingly, I told the software vendor I had reviewed and prepared to use yesterday that now is the time for them to earn our business.
Of course, when things go wrong, you can encounter unexpected problems. In this case, our fax system — which shouldn’t have been connected directly to the server — died. Backups sort of saved the day, as well. “Sort of” because the patch, another legacy system from an external provider (and our longest-standing client) did what it was supposed to do: It saved copies of all inbound faxes. Trouble is, that system is so old that when you request it to forward the faxes to another number, it asks for your seven-digit number when, in Ottawa, we’ve been on 10 digits for several years. Realizing this might be a problem, I connected with the service provider’s technician late in the afternoon, and with a little more stress than reasonable in my voice, sought a solution. He suggested that he could forward the current and upcoming faxes to my email account. Problem (mostly) solved.
We will have some bumpy days ahead as we work out new systems and get everything running properly. I expect other organizations might handle this sort of back-up planning differently. Anticipating the problems, they would invest significant funds to avoid down-time and ensure reliability. But I decided after a rather bad experience with Vista, that I would not use Microsoft products unless there were absolutely no alternatives and I wasn’t about to spend $10,000 to $20,000 plus ongoing license fees for products and services to maintain the status-quo. Nor was I about to pay consultants for a bottomless pit of expenses to maintain systems that were ancient, in any case.
Not all business decisions are made this way but we can learn some marketing lessons from the experience. Who lost my business, and why? And who won it? Clearly, a bad product experience (Microsoft Vista) destroyed my perception of that company’s brand, which has not recovered to me despite all of Microsoft’s advertising and marketing efforts. Christie and Walther Communications in Ottawa wins points for having sold me an inexpensive fax system backup and having someone available to help on a work-around for their own legacy systems. The computer consultant who couldn’t show us how to install and operate a proper back-up system and seemed to find one way after another to bill us for more and more maintenance charges has had to leave our (inexpensive) office building because his business has dried up. (Another bad experience because of sloppy practice and service.)
Finally, our new software service provider, who will remain nameless until the system really proves itself in operation, saved the day when its representative reconfirmed their package will solve both the ad management and circulation systems and there won’t be any extra monthly charges for the additional capacity. How did I choose this provider? A web search, a low (actually no) pressure demonstration by their sales rep and when I told her we weren’t ready, she didn’t worry. She knew the time would come for my call, and it did. Now they have the opportunity to prove their service delivers what it promises and earn their monthly fees.
Of course business crises and problems are perfect opportunities for marketers to obtain new clients but most business owners and decision-makers will base their choices on experience. If we fail to deliver the goods and create a satisfying experience, our brand can become toast and (while there may be telling signs of potential problems) we won’t necessarily act right away so all may seem okay on the surface. But the loss of business is expensive and is easily avoided. Note, as well, how I chose my new provider — a web search, coupled with research and conversations months before I “needed” the alternative, and how an old client came through on the supply side of the equation. I’ve been in business 20 years now. Christie and Walther had a well-established communications service well before I arrived on the scene. Is there a reason they are still around and succeeding in a highly competitive environment?
Lessons learned.
Design and Construction Report Recruiting
Before I had to shift my focus to computers and systems, I called a couple of the candidates who passed the the initial test, one in Florida and the other in Atlanta. The Florida person afterwards sent me a request that is entirely reasonable — can we provide a sample copy of the publication? As it is online, we don’t keep a stock of printed copies, so I decided to investigate and try an online print-on-demand option (different from the Construction Marketing Ideas book printing service which will only print books, not periodicals). Turns out, we need to make minor modifications to the page layout to the publication but our designer Ray Levielle has worked on the options. The other candidate I interviewed has shown great public relations and communications skills but I’m concerned may wish some more hand-holding and community support than we can offer. However, she is not out of the running. One other person completed the online test and I received two resumes from people trying (I think) to end-run the autoresponder system: One sent emails to me and two others in our organization on our personal emails. I deleted the intrusive email from the candidate who presumably didn’t choose to follow the rules we’ve set. (Bad move: If someone sets up a format to follow, go ahead and be creative, but don’t ignore the format!)
I also posted Craigslist ads in Delaware and another one in the Washington area. For Delaware, I encountered the “problem” of free Craigslist listings as the system loudly informed me that I should not post in multiple markets, not sell opportunities (rather than offer a real job) and not promote any multi-level-marketing schemes. Of course, this is something of a problem for me because we have an opportunity which can be done from anywhere in Canada or the U.S. Thankfully, the restrictions don’t apply if you are ready to pay the $25.00 per listing fee in the major market areas where it is demanded by Craigslist, something I am happy to do. (Of course these fees have helped Craigslist decimate other commercial services because the cost/value equation is so alluring that you would be a fool not to try Craigslist if you are looking to hire someone in the U.S.).