Be There When Your Customers Need You Most

When making a buying decision, nearly every customer asks himself some version of this question: “Can I depend upon this person, product or service to do what it’s supposed to do?”

I have a six-foot wooden privacy fence that surrounds my property. About a year ago I was contacted by a young man who wanted to replace one wall of that fence. His quote was too expensive, but I kept his contact info as I knew I’d have other jobs that would crop up. He kept in occasional contact with me and I was impressed by his earnestness and his demeanor.

Last week I had a shed that needed to be moved, which meant that about 18 feet of fence needed to be taken down. When I contacted him, he was interested in the job. But when I firmed up the date with the people removing the shed, I couldn’t find him. I called his cell phone and his home phone four times over three days with no response. Finally, I had to hire someone else to do it. That evening the young man showed up again after the job was done, and told me he “had been out of town.”

Hmmm. The last I heard, cell phones do work out of town.

Had he returned my call and told me he couldn’t take the job and given me a valid reason (“I’m booked up,” “Your job is too small,” or “I have to be out of town,”) I’d have been fine with that. But he led me down a path where I believed he would do the job, and then he left me hanging.

If you can’t be depended upon, how do you expect to stay in business, especially in this tough economic climate?

I can no longer depend on this young man and, as a result, he has lost at least two more jobs that I will need done. All he had to do was demonstrate his dependability. Instead, he proved himself to be undependable and he has now lost my business along with any other I might have referred to him.

Be there for your customers. Never underestimate the importance of dependability.

Regards,

Glenn

Depend on me to be on Twitter. I’m @txglennross.