Community Futures Lethbridge Region

I'm afraid this was not a positive experience. Two different people didn't call after cordially setting up specific appointment times by email well in advance. Neither person asked for missing information or anything like that, so I had no idea if they needed any information at all. Opening a business is tricky and difficult with several new things to learn and constant goals and deadlines. In such a position, new business owners seek reliable resources, especially if they may become a paying customer. Out of a group of budding entrepreneurs, I am the first to go to DSS and DEP and this is the only experience that I have to share with that group or anyone else. I will also share helpful resources found elsewhere so that they can avoid experiences like this which resulted in less productivity since the outcome of the entire experience was empty. To clarify, the first person who did not call at the appointed time later owned up to their error and apologized, but due to poor response times and crunching deadlines, I did request to be shifted to another person, hoping for increased productivity in this startup process. When I sent a complaint to the second person who did not call at the designated time, they responded that they would reply to the public that I did not provide a phone number. They cordially set the appointment a week ago and never asked for any other information. I had put it into the signup form, so did not know it was needed. I am not upset that repeated mistakes were made, but rather at how poorly the mistakes were handled over all. I appreciate what Community Futures offers to budding entrepreneurs and am sad that this was my only experience with DSS and DEP to share with the group. I am able to find help elsewhere, but beware that you must give your number if they email and they do not let you know that. Also beware that if a potential customer is blamed for an error in any type of service, it builds bad rapport and leads to potential blame for errors elsewhere. The short notice rescheduling by person 1 and the no-shows by both of them indicate that even established timelines are unreliable, so if you seek their help with anything that must be done in a timely fashion, allow extra time for this. Hopefully this review will motivate them to reduce stress instead of adding more stress to their customer's projects.