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Last week I logged into my Stripe account for the first time in years.  (I was planning to investigate how we can start integrating Stripe into FASO). 

Upon logging in, I received a message stating that my account needed to be verified by phone and asked me to setup a time to talk to Stripe support. 

Since I was very busy with many projects and meetings, I carefully picked a day and time that I knew would work for me and submitted the form. 

I was informed that a Stripe support rep would call me at the appointed time.  I also received an email from Stripe confirming the date and time.

The appointed time came and went - no phone call.  I was upset.  I had other things I could have been working on, but had planned my morning around the expected call. 

I lost confidence and trust in Stripe.  

How can I trust Stripe with my money if they can’t even be trusted to make a phone call….that they forced upon me.  That they demanded…..that they promised…..on time?

We often receive praise for how great our customer support is at BoldBrush and FASO.  So, obviously, we would never do something like Stripe did to me, would we?

Except we do. 

I’ve come across several tickets over the past few weeks where the customer had a question and, for whatever reason, it the answer required getting back to them at a later time. 

I’ve often seen it in the form of, “I don’t have the answer to this today, but I’ll get with our developers on Monday and get back with you.”

By the time I see these tickets, usually Monday (or whatever promised day) has come and gone and the ticket hasn’t been updated, or the user has opened a new ticket to follow up on the issue.

I’m thankful that most of our users our more patient and kinder than I am.  I solved the Stripe issue by going to Twitter and complaining to them, and they called me back 10 minutes later.  Our customers are usually more patient than I am. 

But that doesn’t change the fact that when this happens, we’ve let them down.  

We’ve undermined their trust in us.

I wrote last year that one of our BoldBrush principles is Honor Commitments and Follow Through.

I didn’t write those letters just for fun.  I was outlining the principles required to be an ongoing part of the BoldBrush Team.  And that’s one of them - if you make a commitment, to a teammate, to a vendor, or to a customer, please honor it and follow through as promised.

Look, I know our current ticket volumes are higher than “normal.”  I know it's hard to get to everything.  And I do appreciate how hard everyone on our team is working right now.  I really do.  And I thank you all for that hard work.  

So please, let’s not undermine that hard work by eroding the trust we’ve worked so hard to engender in our customers by failing to follow through on promises we make to customers.

Have a great week.

Clint