Pertingo Computer Support

We recently parted ways with a central Indiana small business computer outsourcing customer. We had provide their IT support services for several years. During that time they moved into larger space, completed the buy-out of another business, and expanded their reach to include an international presence. Throughout the entire time we provided their computer tech support, but the relationship never solidifed between our companies. At different times different people here at Port-to-Port Consulting would voice concerns about the way we worked with this organization. On each occasion, someone else would point out where there was something we could have said or done differently that might have prevented this strain in the relationship. We'd hash it out and decide that we should try harder to make this network support customer happier.

Finally, we realized during one of these hash sessions that the problem wasn't one of people or personalities, or even communication styles or knowledge: the problem was one of culture. You see our IT support services customer had a culture built around mistrust. In their industry, everyone was out to gouge you if they could. They didn't trust anyone to tell them the truth, and they rarely told the whole truth to anyone either, so we kept looking like patsies to them when we walked in and gave them the full story.

Their culture was so unaccustomed to our straightforward approach that they never believed we were telling them the truth. I tell people all the time that if you don't trust your advisor you should stop paying him and get one that you do trust. That's the message we finally had to give to this now-former client. It took us a long time to figure out why the relationship wasn't working because we looked for a person problem. In the end, the problem was compatibility.