This post is part of Business Mechanics — structured strategy and operational insight for serious small business builders. Read more about Business Mechanics HERE>>>
I recently had one of the strangest vendor interactions I've experienced in a long time. My interaction with my vendor was not the result of a particularly difficult or especially complicated request and it wasn't even because the employee handled it poorly.
The part that stuck with me was that somewhere along the way, I felt like I was being asked to help manage someone else's employee.
As a business owner, that's where I draw the line.
For several months, I had been requesting the same report from a vendor. The request wasn't new. It wasn't a surprise. It wasn't something I dreamed up on the spot. Every month I needed the same files. Every month I was directed to the same employee.
And every month I found myself sending follow-up emails trying to get a response.
At first, I assumed everyone was busy. We all have things fall through the cracks. Lord knows I've missed an email or two in my life. But after several months of the same pattern, it became clear this wasn't a one-time oversight. This was the process. Or perhaps more accurately, the lack of a process.
Eventually the request became time-sensitive enough that I copied management into the conversation. I wasn't trying to get anyone in trouble, I promise. Yes, I was escalating to get more layers of infrastructure visibility on this clear process failure but, more importantly, I needed the files.
The response I received was surprising.
Instead of acknowledging the delay or helping solve the issue, I was essentially told that I should be able to pull this report myself. The implication was clear that it was not a process failure, it was human error (or laziness) on my part.
Now, I am perfectly willing to admit when I am the problem. I have asked plenty of dumb questions in my life. I have clicked the wrong button. I have missed instructions sitting directly in front of my face. It happens.
But when I explained that I did not have access to the functionality being referenced and simply needed someone from their team to export the files, the conversation somehow became even stranger.
The employee finally responded that she would get to it next week. Next week. For a request that was already overdue. For information I had been requesting for two weeks. For a service I was actively paying for.
To be clear, this isn't a story about money. I don't believe customers deserve special treatment because they spend more. I believe customers deserve responses because they are customers. Whether someone spends $30 a month or $3,000 a month, the principle is the same.
Answer the email. Provide the service. Or explain why the answer is no.
What happened next is what turned an annoying interaction into a leadership lesson. Management stepped in. To their credit, they immediately recognized the issue. The problem was solved quickly.
In fact, the task I had been chasing for weeks took only moments to complete once the right person became involved.
Problem solved, right? Not exactly.
A few weeks later, I found myself working with the same employee on a different issue. That happens. Businesses are small worlds. People work together. No big deal. Except during that interaction, the previous conflict came back up. I was asked about my feedback. The employee wanted to revisit the situation. And that's when I realized what had been bothering me all along.
I don't want to manage your employees. I don't want to coach them. I don't want to provide direct performance feedback. I don't want to explain why a customer might find certain behavior frustrating. That's not my job. It's yours.
The Customer's Job Is To Describe The Problem
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is confusing customer feedback with employee coaching. Those are not the same thing.
As a customer, my responsibility is simple. I tell you what happened. I tell you how it affected me. I tell you what outcome I needed.
That's it.
Everything that happens after that belongs to management. Maybe your employee needs more training. Maybe they followed the process exactly as instructed. Maybe the process itself is broken. Maybe I am the difficult customer. Maybe I am the only person asking for something unusual.
I don't know.
And more importantly, I shouldn't have to know. I am not sitting in your management meetings. I don't understand your staffing challenges. I don't know your workload expectations. I don't know your internal procedures.
That's why it isn't my place to train your team.
"You're The Only One Who Asks For This"
One comment from the interaction has been bouncing around my head ever since.
I was told I was the only one who asks for this particular report.
Okay.
And?
The more I thought about it, the stranger that statement became. Businesses aren't built around average customers. They're built around actual customers. Some people use your services differently than everyone else. Some people have unusual workflows. Some people need something once a month that nobody else has ever requested.
That doesn't automatically make the request unreasonable.
In fact, unusual requests are often where businesses discover gaps in their systems. If one customer asks for something repeatedly, eventually that isn't an unusual request anymore. It's a recurring process.
The question isn't whether I'm the only person asking.
The question is whether the business has decided how it's going to handle the request moving forward.
What Happens At My Business
When a client escalates a problem to me, ownership of the problem resolution changes hands. I don't throw my employee under the bus. I don't assume the client is right. I don't assume the employee is wrong.
I investigate.
I solve the client's immediate problem. Then I go back and figure out what actually happened. Was there a communication breakdown? Was the request misunderstood? Did we fail to train properly? Did the client need something outside the scope of their agreement? Do we need a better process?
Those are management questions. My employee doesn't need to chase the client down for performance feedback. My client doesn't need to coach my employee through the interaction. That conversation happens internally.
Because my employees are my responsibility, not my customers'.
Management Isn't A Group Project
One of the hardest parts of running a business is hiring. Finding good people is difficult. Training them is difficult. Retaining them is difficult. But that responsibility comes with the territory.
When employees create friction with customers, leadership has to own the outcome. Friction in a professional interaction does not indicate that your employee is a bad egg or the customer is unreasonable but someone is ultimately responsible for the long term health of the business relationship.
And that responsibility belongs to management. If a customer tells me one of my employees created a poor experience, I want to know. I want the feedback. I want the opportunity to improve.
What I don't want is to ask that customer to become part of my management team.
My employees are my responsibility.
My customers already have jobs.
They shouldn't have to do mine too.