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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be pissed off with would-be clients ignoring my emails?

43 replies

Gladiolis · 08/02/2016 13:52

I work as a career coach and offer potential clients a free 30 minutes by phone to assess whether they'd like to proceed.
I'm not new to this, it's been my work for a decade.

I'm just pissed off with a couple who said they wanted to go ahead, I booked them slots and emailed them the days and time to confirm, and they have ignored the emails. Under no circumstances do I do any sales pitch or coerce them to proceed, in fact I ask them if they want to think about it and get back to me in a day or two.

And they don't even have the decency to say they have changed their minds. These are highly educated people and business owners. It's just so discourteous and seems to be happening more. Why?

OP posts:

NoIdeaForANameChange · 08/02/2016 14:33

It is rude but best to just move on and focus on finding other clients.

silverfoxofwarwick1952 · 08/02/2016 14:34

Life is not perfect and the customer is always right.

KitKat1985 · 08/02/2016 14:36

So did these clients approach you then? I agree that if the approached you then it was rude of them not to reply.

And I wasn't questioning the whole nature and ethics of coaching, I was just saying what my mental image of coaching is from what I've seen in the media. But then I'm a nurse in the NHS and not in business. Some days I don't get a chance to make myself a cuppa all day let alone spend time to think about career coaching, so I doubt I'm your target audience. And frankly I'm too poor to afford it

LurkingHusband · 08/02/2016 14:37

I also think you are a bit out of order questioning the whole nature and ethics of coaching when you know nothing about it. Clients come to me through choice believe it or not!

When DS was born, MrsLH really wanted to brush up her maths, so she could help him with homework. She enrolled on a night-school GCSE course at the local college. All her fellow students wanted to be there, and two said they were keen to get their GCSE as it would get them ahead at work.

I got told off for my cynicism, when I suggested that I would be surprised if all the people who started the course actually finished. As it happened, I should have been more cynical, since only one person - MrsLH - took the exam.

One more example of people thinking that "not having to pay" equates with "has no value". Playing right into the Tories hands .

TremoloGreen · 08/02/2016 14:41

What hiho said, +1. I'm surprised it's the first time you've come up against this TBH. I run a consultancy practice and if people ever ask why my rates are high I think 'because so many of you are flipping timewasters and/or expect me to work for free so I have to factor that into my costs'!! And breathe.

3WiseWomen · 08/02/2016 14:42

The way I look at it, they've just shown you that you don't want them as a client. IF they had gone ahead they would probably be a pain in the a* to deal with.

Just think how much hassle you have escaped and let it go.

mummymeister · 08/02/2016 14:42

we are finding that when we send e mails out with attachments of any sort like letters confirming orders etc they go into peoples spam filters. unfortunately a lot of people set up complicated protections on their computer not realising that some of them just automatically dump a doc into their spam if it has an attachment. could this have happened?

agree it is really rude. if we decide not to go ahead with an appointment I always e mail or phone.

Mistigri · 08/02/2016 14:44

Are you cold-calling?

If so then it's irritating but it's a natural consequence of the business model.

Also, if something is offered for free then it's natural to consider that it doesn't have a value.

It is inconsiderate not to reply to your mails, but you just need to make it clear in your mail that the offer of the free session is only valid if they get back to you by a certain deadline. After that, you simply rebook the slot.

As for people not turning up to interviews, there are skill shortages in some areas especially where the employer isn't paying the going rate. My department has trouble recruiting suitably qualified candidates because the work is specialised but we are subject by HR to artificial limits on the salaries we can offer.

justmyview · 08/02/2016 14:44

Maybe you could say that you have reserved a slot for them & they have to confirm their availability within 48 hours, or else the slot will be released as you have a waiting list

Viviennemary · 08/02/2016 14:45

They should have responded. But not everybody does the right thing. If it's only a couple of people who have let you down this isn't very much in the grand scheme of things and is to be expected.

Mistigri · 08/02/2016 14:47

Also - email filters. I was missing an important email not long ago. Convinced I had never received it. It had gone into some obscure folder that I didn't even know existed!

Filmstar01 · 08/02/2016 14:50

It's very rude and you've also lost other business potentially as you booked them into slots. Maybe charge a fee for lack of reasonable cancellation in the future?

mummymeister · 08/02/2016 14:54

mistigri - had 3 calls about that very thing just today. clients absolutely convinced I haven't confirmed with them. until of course they looked in their spam filters. one became very unreasonable.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 08/02/2016 14:55

If they approached you then yes it is rude. If you've rung them up to talk to try and sign them up, even if it is as non-committal as you describe, they might just be in default mode of thinking agreeing is the easiest way to get rid but they're not interested.

kawliga · 08/02/2016 14:56

I don't reply to all the emails I get at work. If I did I'd be sat all day replying to emails. It is very easy for timewasters to fire off emails, then sit back and expect replies. Not saying OP is a timewaster, just saying that the average business probably gets lots of timewasters emailing them.

0hCrepe · 08/02/2016 14:58

What a huge waste of your time. They may come back to you though. A good friend is a life coach and does some corporate work; she earns a lot and is very good. A short talk and a few techniques to work on got me through a fear of public speaking to do a presentation. Definitely not David Brent.

deepdarkwood · 08/02/2016 15:08

As a small business owner, I'm amazed this is the first time you've had this issue! I've been running my own consultancy for 11 years - I have two clients at the moment who are totally committed to going ahead with projects (reasonably sizeable - think 10-30k projects) and who won't reply to my emails/calls to get things sorted and underway. And that is not for a freebie (which however useful is always seen as intrinsically less valuable by the recipient). Polite chasing/knowing when to let go is all part of managing a small business, imo.

(NB Do you take ignoring as no? If I had talked to someone, confirmed a time slot and then got a follow up email I wouldn't expect to reply, as I'd already confirmed it....)

Marniasmum · 10/02/2016 09:37

Wrong! Some of my best clients are CEOs and directors of top companies . The come for all sorts- NLP coaching, change of career in their 40s and 50s, work-life balance etc. Coaches are not 'business advisors'.

Yeah CEOs and directors are still employees!! You are failing to understand the difference between a business owner who has invested in his business and an employee who can much more easily switch job or career!

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