It goes without saying that in this day and age of fast information exchange technology that you have to be aware of what you say and to whom you say it, because you never know how quickly the wrong impression can reach unintended ears. Combine that thought with the idea that if you do something right, it can sometimes just go unnoticed, but make a mistake, and people love to talk about it. Let me explain.

I recently provided a custom job to a new client, who, from the beginning, was a little misguided as to terms. I explained a customary deposit protocol for starting this type of job, and in exchange I got a written purchase order with net 45 written in under “terms.” (A deposit, reiterated by me as necessary, came much later, delaying the start-up, and had a ship date request that was sooner than the promised turn-around date). I asked for balance of payment when we were ready to ship, and I (mistakenly) got a forwarded e-mail in which my terms were described as “BS.”

Now, I know after so many years in business it’s better to just ignore those little things, but that day I just felt like using my writing skills in an “artistic, illustrative” fashion to make a point. So I proceeded to draw an analogy between my customer’s expectation for terms, and other situations where you traditionally buy things and pay for them before you get them unseen but custom to order (for example, a pair of altered slacks from a popular catalog company … off the shelf style, but tailored to fit). I suggested that my customer should try buying a product and offer to pay half the bill and then the balance after they received, tried on, and decided that they “liked” what they had ordered. All this zipped off in an e-mail to both my contact and the billing contact at the company and delivered in short order. Please understand. This was a new customer with whom communication had already seemed a little difficult. And I could have said, “I’m sorry, we don’t have any other terms than these,” or said nothing at all, but on this day chose not to go that route.

In my defense, I did call one party to whom the mail was directed and let them know I was sending it, and asked them to let the other party know that it was meant to be read with some sense of humor, and as a friendly retort, nothing more. I figured that would be that.

But wait, there’s more!

It turns out that our product had been specified by a huge design firm (new to us, but thankfully, still friends) and I received, within a short period of time, a frighteningly disturbing e-mail attached to a copy of my letter, which said, in part that “in all the years of doing business … never received a response such as this … left me with such an ill feeling … will never specify, recommend or approve the purchase of a product or service provided by your company.”

Simply shocked, I could not understand why on earth, especially after mitigating the potential impact of my comments with a phone call, anyone would want to forward this and put such a negative “spin” on my comments that they would illicit this kind of reaction … from a third party. My immediate thoughts were: “Oh no, who’s going to hear about this? How many people will they share it with? How much potential loss of business will I suffer as a result of my “creative writing” exploit?” Well, here’s the rest of the story.

I was unaware that the design firm owns the fabrication company who was my customer. Needless to say, that made my comments open to immediate and unbridled inspection and subjective criticism by any and everyone involved. Forwarded to the wrong person, on the wrong day, under the wrong circumstances and WHAM-O! I’m a guy in quicksand looking for a branch to grab and pull myself out.

There is a happy ending to the story. Most sincerely, I called the parties involved and offered an apology for my momentary lapse of sanity and total lack of attention to business etiquette. I also offered additional information about the pre-emptive phone call I had made and my real feelings about the unfaltering superior customer service I believe is incumbent upon anyone in business to try to deliver.

I believe I’ve earned back the respect of my customers, but learned a most valuable lesson, and it is this: Think a while first, know your motive and your desired results, then be careful what you say, to whom you say it, when you say it and how it’s delivered because you never know when, like a vicious guard dog, it’s going to come up behind you and bite you on the boo-tay (or if you’ll have the right medicine to ward off an infection!) Ciao.