Exactly… But just the opposite seems to be happening.
The sponsor wrote an e-mail that went to me and the payment processor in which he said “It never entered my mind that setting up a joint sign up for both our sites would exclude any of our affiliates from their payouts just because they did not have an affiliate account with the sub account which [payment processor] requires when setting up the join link, in this case 3000.”
To which ‘support’ at the payment processor replied “The Affiliate programs webmaster has the ability to setup individual programs for the each sub-account or for the account as a whole. This program as you know, has been setup with an individual affiliate program for each sub-account. The account that you have sent a sale to currently does not have an affiliate program setup.”
How in the hell does that help the sponsor resolve the issue? He even acknowledges that what he’s saying the sponsor already knows. If they weren’t so frustrating the responses would be laughable. Responses like that were very typical in the 30ish e-mails that went back and forth. They often completely missed the point and almost never addressed the real issues that could resolve the problem. It’s like they’re being paid per e-mail and want to drag it out as long as possible…
It all goes back to my former, mainstream career as a corporate trainer. If all of your people aren’t on the same page and the page isn’t up to date, you’re SCREWED. Many companies are feeling the “pinch” of our economy here in the U.S. but they are cutting the wrong departments. I debated, at length, with my former employer over their choices of budget cuts. They felt as though since there was a “hiring freeze”, there wasn’t as strong a need for training. What they failed to realize is that although the current staff was trained, there are constant changes in technology, procedures and products. Without a centralized person or department to distribute the training to handle these changes, you completely loose any aspect of consistency in your company’s service and in today’s market service will make or break a business. The dollar is stretched to it’s limit and people are looking for the most bang for their buck. If they feel the slightest bit inconvenienced or misguided, they will head directly for the competition. Being well known and established in this industry is a terrific asset, but it doesn’t make you immune to being replaced by a lesser known but more customer savy upstart (that may also be undercutting your pricing). Consistency and product knowledge…simple tools of success that are so frequently forgotten!