“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw
This has been my moto for a long time now. I have been called unreasonable many times in my previous corporate life. But if I was reasonable would I have arrived where I am today? I doubt it.
I have not quite been told that I am being unreasonable in the past couple of weeks but we came very close to it, I could feel it.
Last year when I started the business, I had to buy an accounting software. After trying a few and in regards of my limited funds, I chose Microsoft Office Accounting (MOA). Despite what some people think of Microsoft, I generally like the software they make. MOA fitted well as it included a CRM system called Business Contact Manager. It was also very good value and certainly cheaper than the equivalent Sage offering. Last November after nearly a year using this software, Microsoft dropped the bomb shell that they were stopping supporting it. That was disappointing but, as a sweetener, they offered to all customers to move to Mamut. Looking at the software, I was not a great fan but the deal was far too good to miss. The sales guy promised that the software would have exactly the same functionalities and that yes, I could have it installed on a server so I could work remotely from anywhere and that I would get help to move all the data. I took the offer to find out after 3 weeks that in fact, the software was not supporting remote working in the way I wanted to do it and more to the point that in fact the data migration offered fell very short of the salesman promises…. I moved away from the solution.
Next, came my prefered solution, a software called Pearl. Pearl had all functionalities I need and works “in the cloud”, which is perfect for what I want to do. Pricing was a bit of an issue but yet again from the promises of the sales person, data would be moved for me. When it came to support, it became clear after a few days that in fact the data could not be moved using the back up MOA file. I was again disappointed but accepted. I was asked to send Excel downloads of my account balances that would then be transferred to the new system. I duly sent the files and waited. I am not known for my patience but on this occasion was very patient. Five days later, I could not hold it anymore and chased….. To be told that in fact, due to too much work, this project had taken a backseat in the priorities. I wonder how much longer I would have waited if I had not rung….
I am again looking for a solution.
Then came the telephone answering service. As I am not always in the office and do not like talking to machines I wanted to use a telephone answering service. I appointed a company, the salesman promised, is second to none and would certainly give me entire satisfaction. To prove this, they were willing to give me a free week. I will admit that this was a difficult week as most of UK had been hit by snow and that it was difficult to get to the office. Two days running my phone was not answered by the company, did they ring me to tell me that there offices were closed? Of course not! When the nice woman from the telephone answering company rang to ask me whether I was now ready to sign up with them…. I was very polite but declined. I had the distinct feeling that she thought that I was being unreasonable.
Am I unreasonable? I don’t think so! What is really unreasonable is for sales people to make promises they cannot keep.
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