Yeah, it’s another rant.  For 20 years I have had a Pitney Bowes machine within 20 feet of my desk.  They have and currently make money off the quarterly lease, they get a piece of the action on the postage and they make interest off the reserve account that they hold for future postage.  They make a ton of money off their hugely overpriced supplies to keep the machine printing.  Well about 2 years ago, kicking and screaming they upgraded me to a new machine.  The old machine was fine but they double teamed me, saved me ten bucks a month and heck it was a new machine.  What they did not stress was that the lease was going to be extended substantially.  Well the new machine does not work.  Right after you put in one of their famous $100.00 ribbons, it shows “RIBBON LOW” or eats it all together.  So I get mad.  But they will not let you.  The voice mail is the toughest ever devised.  No way to get an operator.  They make you unplug the machine and re-boot before you are allowed to talk to someone – if you get upset and try to speed up the process, it asks that you start all over.  Finally I get someone, very nice.  It is the wrong department, hold, wait, another nice person, but wrong, hold, wait, three more times until I speak to a cranky one.  I give it to her and she informs me that I have a lease and I can’t ship the stupid machine back.  I said I was busy and to have someone call me (a twenty year client) and she says Pitney Bowes is not allowed to make an outgoing call!  (See I went the repair route already, twice).  I called sales and asked about STAMPS.COM.  The sales person was nice but could not compare and contrast Stamps.com for me.  I later found out that Pitney Bowes owns Stamps.com.  This is probably the worst corporate experience that I have ever had in my long 52 years.  So of course, I want to make sure that some of my mega-agent clients have not also got “too big for their britches”.  This week we did a tune up.

1.  On the prime data base.  The sphere that makes us money by repeating and referring, are we calling them personally twice a year, thanking them, asking what their plans are for 24 months, what family-coworkers-friends are thinking of doing something in real estate in the next 24 months and would you like to pull some equity out of your property and take advantage of some great opportunities out there.

2.  Do your buyers and seller know the frequency of your check in calls.  Mine were every 10 working days.

3.  Is your schedule time blocked for two different hours a day for incoming/outgoing calls so that everyone knows they can reach you and when.

4.  Do your affiliates, brokers, managers know that it is their responsibility to diffuse difficult situations and to warn you of an irate client.

5.  Do you give such a satisfying response to a problem, that you use the solution to problems as a method to ask for more business and referrals? 

6.  Do you know that keeping a current client is 5 times less expensive than generating a new one?

 I was blown away by Pitney Bowes horrible service.  I speak to about 2000 agents a month, all of whom should either have an office or personal postage machine. (Good direct mail to the correct demographic with the correct pleasing value  is still one of the best ways to drive business to a site).  Will I tell them the Pitney story and suggest they use the competition?  Take care of the people that are your loyal clients today or they will become a net loss business generator rather than a net gain.