Simply Effective Method That'll Add Sales Now

Hi Contractor Friend,

Here’s a simple process that’ll set you apart, earn you praise, for which the money will follow. Don’t discount its simplicity for its effectiveness:

First: Be nice. You know what that means.

Followed by: Be competent.

Then: Clearly communicate your competency, so they’ll recognize value.

Next: Offer something additional that’s worth having, that’ll either avoid a future pain or minimize a current one. You never know unless you ask.

No matter how they respond: Warmly and sincerely express your thanks, following-up with a call or email that repeats the same gratitude.

Watch your sales, referrals and customer reviews increase.

And when this happens: Leave a flattering comment at the end of this editorial, because –

It’s my last one.

Well, before you celebrate with TOO MUCH PART-AY HEART-AY, it’s my last one before my last public speaking gig. So, lucky you; you get me for a tiny bit longer!

Yeah, I know, I’m milking this waltz off stage like The Rolling Stones, who have retired at least 14 times. I’m pretty sure fellow speaker and friend Drew Cameron – who will NEVER retire – has seen the Stones play at least 3 “last times ever.” Maybe they can’t remember? (I’m referring to Drew and The Stones, which has a nice ring to it.)

Anyway, I’m heading to The ACCA IE3 Conference in Washington, DC next month, which is why I purposely did not include a comment above about congressmen, politicians in general or the IRS – who I secretly adore and think do a wonderful job auditing other deserving people.

Finally back to today’s topic: My initial lines about being nice, competent and grateful is DARN NEAR all you need to differentiate in today’s marketplace. I’m not kidding.

I used to have a hard time coming up with the ‘occasional’ rotten customer service story to use in editorials. I used to have to ‘search out’ a missed sales opportunity to elaborate upon or a ‘missing marketing element’ that would make a good study. Now my challenge is narrowing them down. It happens every week, big company or small. Want a quick tour?

1. We’re painting our house. I’m OCD and a maintainer’s dream come true. You could sell me a service contract to dust my shingles.

So, the painter comes to do a preliminary kitchen cabinet repaint job, knowing the Big Kahuna paint job is coming. In the process, his guys accidentally (but noticeably) gouged my kitchen floors when they dragged the refrigerator back and forth to paint behind it. It happens.

I tell him, then show him, the cut tracks. He says, “Yep. Those pine floors are soft. I don’t think we did that. I tell my guys to use cardboard. I’m sure they did.” Silence. He has the look of an 8-year-old cookie jar thief and is about as convincing.

I just look at him, thinking. “Uh. Ok.” The grooves are fresh. I rarely, if ever, work out by dragging my refrigerator around. Guess who has proven they don’t accept responsibility and won’t be getting a $7k job? What ‘could’ he have said to not be a doofus about it? Simple as:

“I’m sorry. As much as we try to impress upon our team the value of extra care, these things happen. Do you want us to pay to get this corrected, or deduct it from the exterior painting? Either is fine.”

That’s all it would’ve taken. Own up, fix the problem and the customer, get the job. Any questions? Next example showing you big corporate idiocy…

2. I tried to order a spare part for a hose reel from Frontgate. This is a big company, nice website, higher end products, probably a mondo Customer Service Training budget. Yet –

What a fiasco. In the time I spent on emails, photos, replies, I could’ve fashioned the part out of magnesium with a toenail file. The basics of our email exchange are as follows, which involved 4 different people, each seemingly unable to communicate with each other, or perhaps society.

ME: “Hi there. Returning customer, and I need a part for Hose Reel #ABC. Can I get that from you?”

FRONTGATE CUSTOMER HATER #1: “Can you send me the Order Number and Invoice?”

ME: I got it as a gift. I broke the attachment. My fault. I just need the replacement part #123.

FRONTGATE CUSTOMER HATER #2: “Can you ask who gave it to you if they can find the invoice number? I’ll need to know what model and which part.” (I am not making this up. They asked this a second time, though it bore no relevance to the request.)

ME: <Imagine a thought bubble visualizing said hose tied just below the empty sphere above their neck>

“I referenced the model above, but here it is again, with a photo of the unit. I put an arrow showing the broken part. I need this part. Can I buy this part? I’d like this part. Especially if you have this part, which I’d like to buy from you, since you have this part. That I’d like to buy. From you.”

FRONTGATE CUSTOMER HATER #3: “I’m sorry for your frustration, but this is our process, so I’m sending your question to Technical Support.”

FRONTGATE FOLLOW-UP THE NEXT DAY: “This is Matt in Technical Support. We don’t sell parts. Thank you.”

Though Matt has the communication skills of barbed wire, he at least understood the question – after a week of other attempts – and answered it clearly.
Imagine what would happen if you just listened to your customers, responded in kindness and helpfulness, every time, and made that your branding mission? You’d own the market.

3. Remember the HVAC contractor I’d used for 10 years, who was not named in the editorial where he’d made hostile comments about TWO other contractors that cost him a sale? Well, true to “not taking responsibility,” he read that editorial and instead of apologizing, he went off on two staff members here without saying why. They brought his enraged email to me, incredulous at what they’d done wrong.

So I stepped in to talk to a grown man, who is running a service business. And we communicated about this issue, but I assure you I swayed him none at all. Maybe my communication is poor. He held firm that the competitors, me, my staff, the situation, his lost sale and the world-at-large were all someone else’s fault. A victim in his own mind.

What have American businesses done to responsibility and service? How hard would it be to go back to first grade simplicity of ‘be nice, admit fault, be grateful and try to understand?’

Look, I have likely made a dozen errors today in my behavior. Maybe I’ve been curt with a co-worker, reacted improperly, maybe we have messed up with a customer. And if that’s you, I apologize now and want you to call/email/text/fax/smoke signal me about it. We’ll work it out.

Yet, in a world gone seemingly mad with victimhood, deferring blame, overlooking the obvious hurt, resistance to connection, it seems we are drawing lines of difference instead of circles of sameness.

Be the different one today. Be the standout. Things happen. We cannot control that, but our reaction to them forges our character. Simple goodness works.