Close your eyes and imagine a plumber…what do you see?
I recently had to call Bell Plumbing and Heating over a furnace issue. The experience is one that many small businesses can learn from. They showed up early, they were wearing a clean uniform and were very polite and articulate. More importantly perhaps was the genuine interest in delivering value.
Now for the back-story, a few months ago my furnace would not fire up. So out came the Bell technician. He looked around and it started up fine. He shared that he had to charge for the visit anyway so he did an inspection and cleaned out the furnace. Then he left us with a discount card for the next time.
Then in January, it happened again. He was early, he was polite, and he was well groomed and professional. Turns out, it was a pressure switch, which was intermittently failing. He showed by how to nurse it along, and he told me what to look for when it finally failed. (In other words, he was NOT up selling me).
Not wanting to wait until it was minus 18 degrees like it is this week to have it fail, I had him install it. Now I am telling you about it because it made such an impression on me. I think they do a number of things right that all small business can learn from.
1. They were early
2. They were extremely polite
3. They were well groomed and in a clean uniform
4. They were very professional and competent
5. They were out to ensure that they delivered good value to us
Let me contrast this to an electrician I hired when I first bought my home. Two vans full of four young men (early 20’s) pulled into the alley. They rolled into the house with a leader, who then distributed their work. They were laughing, joking and having a grand old time. Meanwhile their vans blocked my neighbor’s garage making my introduction to the new neighbor a little pleasant. The work was fine and it everything works well. But…Care to guess who I will call again?
How are your employees and associates representing your organization? Do you know?
I think too many companies overlook the impact that their service/install staff have on the customers. I don’t know how many times I’ve had repairman come to my home early in the day, yet you’d think that they had been working for hours because they were disheveled, unkempt, and reeking like they had not bathed in weeks. It doesn’t matter how smart this person is or how “efficient” they are when your customers are repulsed by them.
I also want my service person to help me with my problem, not just try and sell me a new system. I’m glad to see that you got that quality of service here.
Dave