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If you google “DHL Sucks” this is what you get.
If you google “FedEx Sucks” this is what you get.
If you google “UPS Sucks” this is what you get.
Each of the comments and horror stories deals with different aspects of the companies suckage. In my experience, and in reading the comments, the breadth of ineptitude by DHL is astounding. Meanwhile, the FedEx site doesn’t paint the best picture of their employees. I mean come on, you come on a forum and (assumably) flog people who have a dim view of your company? Seriously?
The UPS Sucks page details one particular case and how vehement UPS was about not helping the customer, until they had to file a lawsuit.
It’s utterly mind-blowing how little it takes for a company to generate good will with their customers. Even more mind-blowing is how often they fail to do it.
Where the shipping companies are concerned, it’s clear from my own experiences that DHL and Fed-Ex really have no interest in helping their customers. And it stands to reason they wouldn’t; in a sea of millions of customers a day, how do you begin to decide to whom you throw a life preserver? I can’t answer that, and I don’t expect them to. Which is why I only use UPS. Both have demonstrated to me that they do whatever they can to satisfy their customer. I can go on and on about experiences with UPS where they went further than any other shipping company has, but you know they drill. “They walked through a rain storm, chartered an Airbus and cleared a landing strip in my hateful neighbors front yard to make sure my daughter got her wedding dress on time” blah blah blah.
But what about taking care of the customer? Where is the balance. As anyone knows, I’ve had to break the news to clients in the past that I just can’t do that for them. And honestly, while it stresses me every time, and I lose sleep over it, I have to do it. Why? Because of the other clients.
I have developed a philosophy; I call it my Two Angels philosophy.
When a client presents me with a service issue, I imagine there are two angels on my shoulders. One angel, is my highest-billing client the other, is my least. When I make my decision, I imagine they are both asking me to justify that decision in terms of how I’ve treated them in the past. I have to explain to them how the decision I’ve made is justifiable in terms of their business. For the smaller client, I say “Well, Small Client, this client represents three times the amount of business you bring us, so for that amount of work they earn a special dispensation in this case. If you’d like to bring that amount of work, we can treat you likewise. To large client I say, “See, Large Client, while we may not have given you that discount you wanted you can see that we do other things for you in recognition of the amount of business you bring us which indicate that we appreciate your business.”
It’s a delicate balancing act for sure. And I think that’s the key. We try to balance all the clients along with the needs of our business and ourselves.
The good news? I can categorically say that we do a MUCH better job than these multi-billion dollar companies with thousands of employees.
Oh, and please don’t ship us anything via DHL or Fed-Ex. Because, well . . . you know, they suck.
