Aug 01

No Reply at All - Part Two

As you know, four phone calls and one email were sent asking people with whom I’m in a business development/referral group to join me for coffee so that we can get acquainted. The idea was to learn about one another. I can’t refer someone to a person I care about without knowing them. And sitting in a room for 90 minutes once a week does not mean I know the people in the room. So, I invited four of them to coffee.

One person has a reputation for not returning emails or phone calls. His reputation is in no danger of changing.

One of the businesspeople said, “Hi David. You called me while I was out of town last week.” That was it, nothing more. A statement of fact. Now, keep in mind that I don’t leave blank or mysterious messages like, “Hi Joe, this is David Facer, please call me. I have something to talk with you about.” Rather, I leave a detailed message, as their voicemails often request. What did I get in return? An acknowledgment that I called. Well, an acknowledgement that I called is something, I suppose.

Another person said that no message was received. He did apologize for not returning the call. He would have had he received a message. I appreciate that. He even asked me what I called about. I said I called to invite him to coffee so that we could learn about one another’s businesses and so forth. Again, a heartfelt apology - and nothing more.

I pressed this person a little and told him he may have a service quality problem in his firm. I left the message with a person, I told him, and apparently he never got the message.

“Did you speak with a man or a woman,” he asked.

“A woman,” I replied.

“Oh, I don’t have a secretary,” he said.

I was speechless. Apparently someone took a message and did nothing with it, yet there was no curiosity as to how that might happen. And, there was no attention given to why I actually called.

What’s going on here?

I really don’t know. Someone was out of town. Someone did not receive a message taken by someone who is not a secretary. Someone doesn’t return calls. The fourth person has not responded either. I’m Zero for Four in attempts to connect with people who I am supposed to refer to friends, clients and family.

I am curious about a few things, though. Do I have too high an expectation? Should I lower my standard and just expect people to not return phone calls and emails? Should I call and call and call? Is it reasonable to expect courtesy to be returned? Are we too full with stuff to do already that we cannot process additional requests and inquiries? Are we so busy that attempts to connect with us are missed altogether? Why do we miss potential quality problems like a message not getting through? Are invitations to connect being perceived as just more things we need to do when we’re overwhelmed already? Are we being lazy? Should we have higher standards for relating with other professionals? Do we care that approaches to business like this undermine our reputations? Do we have any concept of our reputations?

Because I am so curious about these questions, I will persist. I will continue the experiment. This week, I will invite three of the four to coffee again and tell you what happens. I’ll invite them in person at the meeting on Thursday.

Any guesses?

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