I had emailed a customer about their product trial period expiring. They would now need to start paying for product usage. Under 30 mins I get a response from the client, “Hey DB, you may not be aware but we have already signed up a contract for the packaged deal of using both the AI Visibility products”.
I was shocked. In fact I was taken aback. I messaged the cross functional team manager to clarify. Is the client saying the truth?
Within a couple of mins, I receive a response back from him. “Hey man. I’m so sorry. I just checked the main accounting system, it does say client has purchased the products. My bad. Honest human error.”
I have been working with this colleague long enough to know which is an honest mistake and/or a statement just to dodge a question.
The information from the sales to the customer success department was slow to pass, or was it the lack in the part of my colleague not doing the fact checking before answering?
Could have been both. Or may be one of them. That’s not the point of this article.
The fact of the matter is the customer had to take out 1 min to respond to a question, which was completely irrelevant to them. Information was there internally between team members and IT systems.
I responded back to the customer with sincere apologies, taking the blame on myself, for not having done the due diligence. Instead of relying on anyone, I should have checked data in the various systems before I reached out to client. But again, there’s the argument why couldn’t sales follow a RACI framework when they already knew I was working with the customer during the free trial?
Multiple angles to look at a situation, analyse in trying to find the root cause. Yesterday in the company all hands, Anthony, the CEO, shared his roadmap for greatness. The first one was a 1 liner. Can we create an environment of joy for the client?
That’s a question I will ponder upon deeply. Every action taken should tick this box. Or else what are we doing anyway being Customer Facing Professionals?
Thanks
DB
20th May 2026