Some vendors will bend over backward to keep their clients happy and protect their reputations. Other businesses that provide supplies or services to companies may feel like they have cornered the market and therefore don’t have to worry very much about customer service.
Sometimes, mediocre service can cross the line into an outright breach of contract scenario where your company doesn’t receive the goods or services that it should have according to the contract you signed. When a vendor breaches their agreement with your company you will have to make several difficult decisions.
One of them will be about whether or not to continue doing business with the company. Answering the two questions below can help you determine if continuing to do business together is the right choice.
Have you established an alternative?
When a company has shown that it does not care about your business and does not intend to abide by its contracts, executives and business owners may need to look into alternative suppliers and vendors.
The businesses operating nearby are constantly in flux, so even if you couldn’t find someone with similar offerings or prices the last time you searched, the market may be different now.
Before you decide whether you want to continue doing business with the other company or not, you need to figure out what your alternatives are and what impact those changes may have on your company’s budget or schedule.
Can you rebuild your relationship?
If you had to file a breach of contract lawsuit against a vendor for not following through on an agreement with your company, there may be some bad blood that would impact any future interactions. Although judges do have the authority to order the other party to fulfill the contract or perform other specific tasks to remedy their previous breach, there’s no guarantee about the quality of the goods or services you will receive or about the behavior of the other company during your future interactions.
If retaining your business relationship is your primary goal when trying to navigate a breach of contract issue, then you may want to look into alternative dispute resolution services to keep the conflict minimal. Being realistic in your approach to a breach of contract issue can help you make choices that will benefit your company.