Corporate morale boosting NYC

I got very frustrated yesterday. About 2 weeks ago, I was stuck in jury duty from 8am-5pm – in case you haven’t enjoyed this experience before, you basically sit in a gigantic room with a few hundred other suckers, from which you can’t leave save for an hour during lunch. Fortunately they had WiFi, and my Email pinged right when I arrived with an inquiry for “corporate team building event, NYC” from a Fortune 500 company. I fired off an Email reply right away, and let the prospect know of my limited availability – but that I would of course use my lunch hour to speak with her.

I was a bit of an inconvenience, because I knew that lunch was to be my only hour of meaningful work for the day preparing for upcoming team building activities, NYC corporate group entertainment events etc. – not to mention my only opportunity to eat lunch. However, a lead is a lead, and I would do whatever had to be done to convert this inquiry into an extremely happy client. We spoke for about a half hour, with me huddled in some dank anteroom I found near the juror latrine. I listened attentively to her event needs, and carefully went over all of our service offerings. I was also very clear about our pricing, which she understood completely – however, even though her budget for this event was low, I assured her that I would do whatever it takes to produce the greatest experience possible for her group, within her budget. I told her I wouldn’t be able to get a proposal to her until the following business day, which she enthusiastically agreed to.

Fast forward to the next morning, I drafted and fired off a detailed proposal, tailored precisely for her event, attendees and goals.

No reply.

I waited about 3-4 days before sending a follow-up Email.

Still, no reply.

I sent ANOTHER Email the following day, as the weekend was now upon us – however, still no reply.

Yesterday morning, I tried calling – I got a generic voicemail box which hadn’t even been set up yet, but I left a message anyway. Not entirely confident that she would receive the message, I decided to try just one more time via Email.

Shockingly, I received a reply! Here’s the Email she sent me, in its entirety:

Hello,

Due to budget limits I believe this option will be out of range. I really appreciate your time and thank you so much for all the information!

That’s it.

I wrote back immediately, reminding her that I’d promised to work within her budget to make the event work for her, and could she let me know what that “range” was.

Imagine my surprise when I received…no reply.

Needless to say, I was peeved. Not only had I devoted my very limited work time at jury duty to this prospect, but I had also been clear from the very start that for this particular client/event, I didn’t want price to be an issue, and would work within her budget to make it happen. I did everything I said I would do, when I said I would do it, and was courteous and professional from start to finish – yet for all of this, I was rewarded with being rudely and repeatedly blown off, my proposal and follow-ups ignored and, finally, dismissed with a perfunctory Email.

This type of thing happens to me a lot, I’m sorry to say. Alas, I know I am not alone, and that owners of other NYC team building companies must certainly endure similar frustrations from rude prospects. However, when an incident such as the one described here happens, I try to channel my feelings by reminding myself that this is, in fact, exactly why I chose to turn live trivia activities into NYC employee entertainment ideas.

You see, workplaces are stressful places, and employees at all levels inevitably feel frustrated. As a NYC team building professional, I have an obligation to understand what it is corporate groups are experiencing, if I am to live up to my promise of being able to address workplace frustration, morale issues etc. through my activities. Simply reminding myself of this fact always makes me feel better, and ultimately helps me to be more empathetic of the groups I work with.