Plumbers!!!

We were supposed to get the kitchen faucet reinstalled on Tuesday. That day they called me and said the project was too big, and told me we were rescheduled for today, Friday, with a half day allotted for the plumber to do his job. He came in, looked at the job and said it would take 2-3 hours, but he didn’t have room in his schedule so he called his office, and they insisted he reschedule us for Tuesday!

I did get a compromise out of him. He connected the gas stove today, so we can at least cook again. I can cope with doing dishes in the bathroom, but I am very tired of living off the microwave. I’m not happy about this, since it was supposed to be scheduled right today, but I can live with it.

Now, what does this have to do with home business?

Think customer service. Am I a happy customer for this company? Will I call them again?

One reschedule was marginally forgiveable; we’ve used this company before and liked them. But two?

Given that they were given all the information about the job on the first phone call, they should have gotten it right the first time. It is not like we got the plumber here and added a bunch of work on; after all, he didn’t even make it here that first day. Someone in the office looked at the job order and said it couldn’t be done before he even arrived.

If you’re in home business, customer service needs to be a priority. That means answering your emails in a reasonable time period, taking care of problems and delivering on your promises.

It’s been a day for thinking about things related to home business for me. I had a girl come by selling educational books. I let her in, even though the budget really doesn’t allow for much right now, to listen to her sales pitch. I used to be an excellent salesperson when I was in jewelry sales, so I enjoy listening to a good pitch, or giving pointers when one falls short. Call it a hobby.

Her pitch wasn’t bad, but she did use one technique that always annoys me. She told me that books in bookstores can run anywhere from $8-35, and then used the $35 price to show what a great value her books were at only $12 each for 24 books, so $288. That’s great, but I know I can get a lot of books for less than $12 each. Perhaps it’s a personal preference, but I like it better when they use an average price for such calculations, rather than the high price. Compare with $20 books, and you still get a favorable comparison without seeming to ignore the full range of pricing available.

She also made quite a few assumptions, which can be risky. She couldn’t really get her pitch around the fact that Ariel already knows her alphabet and numbers, so those books would serve minimal purpose.

On the plus side, she did ask if I knew some of the parents she had sold to previously, so I would perhaps be familiar with some of the people who liked her products. She also asked which houses also had children, and remembered to use names of families she had already visited, one of whom was a playmate of Ariel’s from across the street. Didn’t say if they had bought, of course, but showed she was paying attention.

All in all, she did a fair job. Not stellar, but pretty good. She kept in mind who her target would be buying for, and did not offer the books she had for much older children.

What can you learn to improve your business by interacting with other businesses?