Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

The end of the fees had absolutely nothing to do with concern for customers or government legislation. They did the analysis and realized it would cost them more to build a system that allowed us a “choice” (Oh, that dreaded “customer convenience”) than to simply delete one of their greed fees.

Of course, we credit consumers are often not the most responsible bunch. However, personal accountability aside – the credit card companies are continuing to push, shove and struggle for biz from us untrustworthy spendthrifts and no amount of Tony Soprano usury is going to solve their fundamental problem. WE DON’T TRUST THEM. We don’t believe all the smiling faces marketing glitz on which they blow millions; we’re leery of any special offers (which invariably come with detailed terms and conditions in 2-point type on the back of the letter); we obsess about online payments (did it really go through? Are they delaying the processing to get the fees? etc.) We know they’re out for every last penny they can get from us…and we act accordingly.

Small biz owners reading this – do you operate on trust? That’s one of your big competitive advantages over the “big boys.” You’ve got a lot smaller pool in which to swim (and all those other fish talk, talk, talk); you can’t – as Am Ex can do to a certain extent – make it up in volume or work the churn of millions of customers.

Here are four quick sanity checkpoints:

1. Are you charging interest on past-due invoices? (Good luck getting that anyway. Yes, as a biz owner, I like the idea too, but…if they’re not paying, they’re probably not – um – paying.)
2. Do you expect the (fellow small biz) vendor to pay the stop-payment fee on a check that was lost in the mail? (Think about it – they only have your word you mailed it. )
3. Are the first words out of your mouth (when you are supposedly calling to ask about your service) “We’ve not been paid yet”?
4. Do you have all kinds “WILL NOT” “NOT RESPONSIBLE” “DO NOT” statements on your signs and on your invoices?

Now – explain why I should do business with you again?

Tags: customer service, Discover, credit card fees, American Express, marketing, marketing troubleshooting