Fri, 28 May 2010

Customer Prevention

A friend of mine used to joke that his job title was “Customer Prevention Officer”—it wasn’t entirely a joke as he made a single sale in four years with the employer he was at, admittedly for many millions of dollars. I see lots of customer prevention by businesses that I try to buy goods and services from and that puzzles me in times of economic gloom such as we are living through now.

So here’s a tip for tradies: if you promise to turn up to quote on a multi-thousand dollar job and don’t bother to turn up or even ring to make excuses, don’t be surprised that I won’t even consider giving you the job.

While my wife is away in Europe, I plan to replace the roof on the house and to have all the decks around the house and the pool rejuvenated. So I’ve been seeking quotes from various companies that do such jobs. Some of them have been excellent, making a convenient time to visit and then turning up right on time and getting their quote to me very promptly. But, for each job, there’s been at least one potential supplier who has made an appointment with me and just failed to show up. I hate that.

Posted at: 15:35

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