Big Vendor, Little Help

Why is it when we think of how the large software consulting vendors operate, only a gripping fear of nickel & diming, bureaucracy, mazes, and wild-unfounded charges comes to mind?

I spoke today with a IT and Information Services team manager who was wondering if we’d ever charge them for something like a casual phone call or discussion… Absolutely NOT. I was honestly speechless for a moment - who does that?

A vendor that does that kind of billing, to me, indicates that they are so far distanced from their business relationships that they view every second like a lawyer would. They’re basically saying “listen, you’re just 1 of 100s of our clients, our time is more valuable to us than spending it speaking to you”

… oh the horror! Having to talk to a customer!

It indicates a lack of skill to delegate properly, and a desire to disarm clients with knowledge obfuscation. I wouldn’t ever want to work with that kind of vendor, nor would I ever want AppKu to become that kind of vendor.

Being a larger vendor with lots of clients should mean your standard of communication and the quality of your business relationships is better, not worse, than small vendors like mine that just struggle with the resources to get by.

If you’re large enough to have so many clients, but not providing even the most basic level of communication and commitment to reasonably assist your clients with a phone call or meeting every now and then, then you’re doing something wrong.