[Histonet]advice to vendors

[Geoff McAuliffe]

Vendors might want to remember, and practice, this old chestnut .........

"You never win an argument with a customer"

Geoff

David Henriks wrote:

> Paul, Mark and Doug:
>
> I said nothing about censorship and I did not discourage anyone from 
> sharing their opinion.  I suggested that those opinions be shared 
> off-line.  Often times there is much more to the story than the 
> initial complaint might indicate.  Getting the whole story out would 
> probably involve multiple emails and discussion.  A recurrent theme I 
> am hearing is that if the vendor makes a good product and offers good 
> service, then they have nothing to worry about.  I don't mean to be 
> flippant, but that is naive.  Marketing is the name of the game.  
> Companies with great products and services go under all the time 
> because of negative publicity.  Alternatively, companies with marginal 
> products and service often thrive due to extensive and aggressive 
> marketing.  In this industry - as in many industries - the products 
> are produced by a large group of small companies.  Many companies 
> don't have a huge marketing budget that would allow them to counteract 
> the negative publicity given on a site like this.  How is a vendor to 
> respond?  Do you want the vendor to continue a thread on the Histonet 
> providing the details of the individual incident?  Is that 
> appropriate?  Or, does the vendor ignore it and leave that negative 
> impression hanging in the air to the countless members that have seen 
> it and tucked away that thought in the back of their minds.  Or, as 
> has been suggested, do you ban vendors altogether so there is no forum 
> at all for them to respond.
>
> As for Doug's comment about making a positive comment, of course I 
> wouldn't mind that.  That's why I said "praise in public, criticize in 
> private".  There is no harm to a vendor by publicly praising them.  
> Just as there is no harm to the inquirer if they receive criticism 
> about the vendor they are considering in private.
>
> I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem if your boss posted to the 
> Histonet that you are the greatest histologist in the history of 
> histology.  Would you have a problem if he posted to the Histonet that 
> he had some problems with you and that he questioned your ability to 
> perform your job?  If you're a great histologist, I'm sure that it 
> wouldn't bother you to have negative comments posted about you for 
> everyone to see.  After all, your work should speak for itself.  Maybe 
> some people had never heard of you and were not aware that you are the 
> worlds greatest histologist.  Do you think their opinion of you might 
> be skewed a little bit by the negative comment?
>
> We are all "vendors" to some degree.  We are either selling our 
> talents to our employer or selling our goods to an end user.   We are 
> all an integral and equal part of the industry and it is wrong to 
> treat vendors as if they are anything less.
>
> Best regards-
>
> David
>


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Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029 
mcauliff <@t> umdnj.edu
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