I remember in my early days as a sales rep I discovered something I never thought was possible- businesses that grow too fast can sometimes “shoot themselves in the foot”. I discovered this by witnessing a customer who couldn’t meet the demand of it’s own customer base.
This customer built fiberglass bumpers for 18 wheelers. I imagine he did well for a while. He offered the best price I’m sure thinking that over time he could make it up in volume. Over time, this would be a costly lesson for him. You see he didn’t have the resources available to make it up in volume.
He needed a streamlined manufacturing system which he did not have. Often times he was shorthanded due to employees not showing up.
Bottom line- he did not have a system in place to handle the increased business that he would get from reducing his price. The dealers he was selling to became frustrated at the lack of delivery and took their business elsewhere.
I don’t know if this is what happened in LuLu’s case, but it seems they’re dealing with their own problems with growth. recently I decided to have my latest book The Official Small Business Guide to Marketing 2.0 published with them. I had read some great things about them, so I decided to choose their service. What I did not realize is that their popularity has been a detriment. Apparently they’re customer service has not grown to meet the demand of new customers coming to them.
After purchasing one of their publishing packs, I heard very little from for a week or so. I tried to find a customer service number. None. I tried finding an option for even a live chat. Nada. I later found out they had live chat a couple of years ago but they have since disabled it! So no way I could get in touch of any customer service rep except through email and the messages I had sent were not getting replied to. I finally filled out their online form to get a sales rep to call me so I could communicate with someone within their organization.
Then there were problems getting the designer to implement changes I wanted on the book cover.
The final manuscript is going back to them for at least the sixth or seventh time to get the layout done right. On a bright note, their email communication with me has improved.
I don’t say all this just to bash LuLu, but to use them as example of what can happen to any business that grows to fast to meet demand. I’m sure viral marketing gave them a huge influx of new business, but they just didn’t have the systems in place to handle it.
They even apologize in their forum and promise that they are working on improving their customer service as there have been alot of complaints if you scan the forum posts (which I should have done before I made a decision).
I’m rooting for LuLu, but it will be hard for me to do business with them again until they at least re-implement a live chat or customer service number. At least they now have a Twitter page -http://twitter.com/LuluDotCom.
