25 days to reply to a business email - not acceptable
Lately there have been talk that Nuffnang does not have a viable business model alongside some unpleasant news about the company founders. But still, I thought Nuffnang was a rather novel idea and was willing to give it a shot, what’s the risk to me anyway.
Fast forward after a few ads, I blogged about their movie event then and emailed them my feedback. I did not expect a comment from the founder himself unlike the personal touch of the Advertlets founder, I did expect at least an email response in courtesy.
I got that email after 25 days. What’s a 24 hours lapse experienced by Mandrake, though his feedback was a tad more serious involving a payment cheque that is not signed?
Honestly being a PA and suffering from severe occupational anal retentiveness hazard, I am so not impressed with a company that takes 25 days to respond to an email (and not very apologetic at that) and who will send out payment cheques to their customers/ suppliers (?) with no signatures. Perhaps a little less time spending in take pictures of themselves and a little more time spending on reviewing their business policies and structure is needed. Already as it is, not too few people are not too impressed with them. Although the reasons vary, I believe it should be a wake up call to them.
I hope they will take the time to review the negative feedback so far as constructive criticisms and not dismiss it as hot air by jealous competitors (I honestly think the people at Advertlets have a waaay one up by possessing more humility and personal touch) or dismiss it as potshots by bloggers who are unhappy about the S$1 administrative fee or about the payouts (of which I am neither). I think it is great that I am paid for ads on my blog for which I do nothing, except to paste an initial link. I don’t mind paying a measly S$1 admin fee, though the recent reports of Nuffnang profiteering from this, as opposed to their explanation of covering bank charges, are quite disturbing.
I’ve submitted an email last Wednesday, requesting to terminate my account with Nuffnang. Given any other companies, they would got back quickly to find out more and why I am unhappy, one way or another.
It’s been more than a week. I have not heard anything yet.
It seems that many people experienced slow service with Nuffnang. I have not tried emailing them, although I once complained that Advertlets took faster to comment on my blog than Nuffnang. After that incident, I read a comment by the boss in another blog which says that emailing customer service would be faster.
Now? I am not so sure. The boss did come and comment on my blog that he appreciated my suggestion, that his team will discuss. However, I guess the MOST important issue right now for everyone is prompt customer service and customer satisfaction. Nuffnang should fix this up right now, else Advertlets will win them hands down. Or have they already won?
Ed: To take more than a week to reply to an email… to me it is unacceptable and screams of either poor staff planning or incompetence. The policy in my company is that any unhappiness on the part of the customer has to be RESOLVED in less than a week. I guess business principles make all the difference.
ignorantsoup: I saw your blog entry and comments. I feel that not much importance is being placed upon the glaring issue you have pointed out: prompt customer service and customer satisfaction. I might be wrong but it seems to me that they are taking a rather cavalier attitude towards their blogger “customers”: take it or leave it stance. And more are choosing to “leave it”. Let’s see what they do now.
Hi there,
25 days is by no means acceptable!
Could you give me your ticket number? Kindly email it to me.
I will investigate the matter myself and reply to you.
Our standard reply time is between 24-48 hours. If it is the weekend, it might take longer.
We get hundreds of emails a day, but this is a standard we maintain.
Mandrake recieved a reply slightly longer than the 24 hours later.
Best,
Ming
ming: I must say I am pleasantly surprised to receive a comment from yourself. I guess it’s a good step moving forward.
24 - 48 hours are a reasonable time frame to reply to enquiries or complaints, and I can even understand a longer lull for weekends. Most of us are reasonable and understanding folks. But when it comes to timelines like a week or even 25 days, that’s when we draw the line.
I am sorry but I don’t have the ticket number you mentioned. However I have forwarded the said emails to you for your perusal. Hope to hear from you soon.
I’m with this hosting company and their longest reply is 5 mins!
Yes, I’m amazed every time and there’s why I have several sites with them for a few years now.
The most impressive one I ever had was from bak2u. Got a reply within 5 minutes and at 1am!
It was replied by Paddy himself that everyone is back home but he will look into the activation pin that gave me problem.
Another 5 minutes later, he replied to me. I think this guy don’t sleep one as he replied again in the morning 8am asking if everything okay. Scarily good customer support.
Patrick: care to share?
Atrax: Wow. Sounds impressive to me too. Sounds like someone who is really passionate about the welfare of his business and customers.
Xtralicious > You assumed it quite well.
Passivity is just about the most important thing in a business.
What the difference between you and the rest? You are serving ads, so are they. You provide Cost Per Click, so do they. You provide Cost Per Revenue, so do they. You serve local ads, so do they.
Whats the difference? Where is the reason we need to come to you? What makes you so special?
The secret is in customer service.
How you get handle customers. How sincere you are in providing for customers. What does customer mean in the eyes of nuffnang. It is an absolute reflection. You treat well they come back and they pass good comments. You treat them badly, they treat you badly and they leave, and they dont just leave, they spread what you did to them. Soon you are in the news for the wrong reason.
The nuffnang team has heaps more to learn and unless they learn quickly or engage the services of professionals, you are not going to climb heights.
It doesn’t matter we have the successful creative here or google in america. Are you that talented? Are you that special? That is something you have to find out before you assumed how far out you gonna swim in the ocean.
For 1 successful startup, there are few millions that failed. Humility is a prerequisite of a successful man.
Ming > Whats the point of asking for ticket number now? Whats the point in coming to random blogs and comment and try to solve isolated issues one by one away from nuffnang portal? Do you consider yourself the Nuffnang Rescue Squad?
Even if you can find out why there was a 25 days delay, you can’t go back and undo the damage. The damage has been done and whatever you are doing now to resolve individual issues would not be consider as a genuine resolution. Period.
What is the stand for nuffnang in the future. There is nothing wrong in having problems in your system. Nothing is perfect in this world. But your attitude in resolving the problems are how you would be judge.
There is no purpose in explaining to a customer envelop cost 20cent hence the increase in price. How much sense were there in what you say? It is not only an unpopular decision, it is an illogical decision. Even if you increase the charge by just 1 cent, the fact there are no logic in it is still valid.
For just $1, are all this worth it? Is your ego worth just $1? If the answer is no, reverse everything you’ve done. All these can be resolved by just giving back the $1 and in the future do not ever try this kind of tricks again.
How sincere the company is to live a community dot com is how sincere you handle the community.
I agree. Customer service must be equal to your value. If you are selling a very good product at a very cheap price not sold anywhere else, yes we will still come to you even if you treat us like shit. It is not like we are earning $1000 a month from you with out blogs now. When we reach that stage, it wouldnt be too late to use lower yourself to this customer level. We would still be your loyal customer!
Hi,
this is Paddy from BAK2u.com.
Thank you for the kind words. I happened to be online so instead of waiting for another 6-7hours to get a reply, might as well just access the database and get it done.
Paddy
CEO
Hi Paddy: Thanks for dropping by my blog! Honestly, I have heard nothing but praise for your business ethnics and passion. Hope to take a leafout of your book when I finally have the chutzpah to start my own business!
Here’s the link (affiliate link)
http://www.icdsoft.com?aff=initialbest.text01
Patrick: Thanks a bunch!
No problem.
Hi Xtralicious, now I paiseh liao lah.
If you are going to start your own biz, pop me a mail. I see what I can do.. hee ..hee.
Perhaps you may like to join us here at this coming Ping gathering”
Biz Meetup
Paddy: I would love to!! (for the offer to help and for the invite to the gathering) But hmm, I am as straight-up in real life as I am in my blog..Hope I am not too chillipadi for the gathering.. LOL
Well, just drop by and we see
It is just an informal gathering of people to share ideas and stuff.
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