Before setting up Devizes Solutions, I used to travel a lot. I was on the road 100% of the time and that meant flights, rental cars, hotels, restaurants etc. and that folks, is a lot of business expenses. All of which went on my American Express card. Sure, I had other credit cards and there is little to differentiate one from another, but they did enough to make their product and the accompanying service just right for me. Over the years that translated into me spending well into 6 figures with them. Now, I don’t know if that makes me a good AmEx customer but I know I it doesn’t take many accounts of that size to make me happy. Then that all changed when I moved back to Birmingham, minimal travel, minimal use of my card. but I still carried it and I was still happy to do it.

Last month I got an automated call from them stating ‘Please be aware that we have cancelled your account, please destroy your card’. That may not be word for word but pretty close and that was certainly the tone,. Now I’ve been dumped before, not often, but it has happened, but never by robocall. I later found that they had declined other charges with no warning and no explanation. You better believe I called customer service immediately and let them know in very loud and animated terms how I felt about being treated that way. The response was (and again I paraphrase) ‘tough’! The truth is, I was glad to have found out how this company treats it’s customers before I got into a situation where I was relying on their product/service, I will never consider them in the future and as I explained to them, I would be sharing my experience with the world.

So, enough whining, here’s the small business lesson; you gain new customers for many reasons, you keep them by having a differentiated products and services that fit best to their need. But over time your customers needs’ change, sometimes to the point where what you offer doesn’t fit their need any more. You’ll be able to spot the situation, revenue will drop, reorder periods will lengthen, but something will change. Seize the opportunity to put the ‘relationship’ in customer relationship management, talk to them. Ask them if everything is OK, are they in any way dissatisfied with your product? If they say no, ask if their circumstances changed. You may find out that something else you offer fits their new circumstances exactly and you can save the account. However, if you cannot keep them as a current customer, it’s OK to say goodbye but don’t burn bridges. Their circumstances will change again and you may be exactly what they need once more. But a bad reputation is easy to get and hard to lose and treating your customers with a lack of consideration, respect and basic good manners will get a bad reputation fast. In my situation, if I had received a call from a real person to let me know that the way I was operating my account was outside the terms of service, I would have been fine, I would have even suggested that they close the account and would  have been happy to recommend them. But what actually happened is that American Express acted with all the reckless abandon of  other large financial institutions. American Express sucks, don’t use them.