Flushing money down the toilet - Do you 'cash grab' or relationship build?
The Destroy-IY ethos
I don’t often have to call out tradesman to do some work in my house. Not that I’m a handyman at all. My wife will attest to the fact that I’m quite the opposite! The reason is I’ve been fortunate to live in a new build that hasn’t required much work until recently. However, with time, the house has started to creek, the wallpaper has started to peel and I’ve needed to call in specialists to address the problems.
I’ve already covered my philosophy on DIY. I’m a fan of ‘destroy-it-yourself’ rather than ‘do-it-yourself’,
Money you saved by 'Destroying It Yourself' you can now reinvest into hiring the best professional [to fix or install something new]
So I'm always more than happy to give someone qualified my business.
The Good Guys
Thinking back to when I got my floor laid last year, I remember the guys that did it ticked all three boxes to getting repeat custom,
- Good price
- Good job
- Good manners
Even though I’m not planning to get my floor done anytime soon, I’ll keep their number just in case. As importantly, I’ll recommend them should someone I know need wooden floors installing. In fact, it was my sister who recommended these guys to me in the first place.
The Easy money
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I’ve had a couple of experiences, with an electrician and a plumber that I’ve been less than enamoured with. Last year I had to call out an electrician. I’d tripped the circuit and lost electricity in parts of my house. I called an electrician and explained the parts of the house where the electricity was lost. He charged a price to fix each problem. I think it was for £45 each issue (including his call out fee). Fine, I was happy to pay £90 to get the job fixed.
He came around, he was okay apart from the fact he stunk of weed. I’ve no problem with people smoking. But if you’re meeting new customers for the first time, it’s not a good look. Anyway, he fixed the first issue and as it transpired the way the electrics are wired in the house, it also resolved the second issue. So he completed the job in like 20 minutes, easy money for him.
The Loaded question
After he was done, I asked him a question.
“How much is that?”
“90 quid.” He said, sheepishly.
“Cool.” I said.
And it was cool. The job he did was in no way worth £90. However I paid him no problem.
He had however missed an opportunity. Had he said, ‘That was much more straight-forward than I expected, make it £50.’ Not only would I have probably paid him the £90 he estimated, he would have also earned my trust and repeat business.
As it happened this was a one and done. He said he only took cash. I didn’t have any in the house, so we drove in his van to the cashpoint. He proceeded to spark up a spliff and offered me some. “No thanks, I don’t smoke.” Needless to say, I gave him his cash and never saw him again.
Flushed away
More recently, the flush on one of our toilets broke. Not great. My wife has been on me for ages to get it fixed. I simply haven’t had the time (nor the inclination to do DIY). In the end, I said,
“Let's just call a plumber, and get them to fix it.”
I’m not sure exactly what transpired however I got a call from my wife saying that the plumber had identified the flush we need (it would cost around £20) and that “it would be straight-forward for us to install it ourselves.” Alternatively we could buy the part and pay him over £200 to install it.
SMH... Pay £200 for him to do something that would be straight-forward for us to do ourselves? Did he hear himself? We paid him his call out fee. And needless to say that was another tradesman that would not be getting our repeat business or recommendation.
Lost art
I do however find it interesting just how many tradesmen (or should I be saying trades-people?) have lost the art of building relationships. If I were an electrician or a plumber I’d treat that first visit to a customer like a first date. If you play that first encounter right and you can not only have a customer for life but an advocate who will drum you up more business. I’ve been surprised at how many are happy for the call out and cash grab. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky in my last encounters or maybe it is symptomatic of modern day business practices.
To be honest, I think there are two things at play here. 1.) There is a dying understanding of sales and public relations, which is why all too often you're seeing tradespeople undervalue that first impression. (They don't even understand why it's important!) And 2.) There is a dying sense of etiquette and customer service in the western world, which also leads to workers paying little attention to how one conducts himself with customers. Like with the gentleman smoking marijunana around you while on the job! They don't understand how they're exchange with their customer can contribute to repeat business.
I worked in customer relations for my dads window and eavestrough cleaning business for a year, and we were both baffled (having years of experience in sales prior to this) at how often today trades people will pass off that first one-on-one encounter with a customer to just have an automated website or other system do the work for them. But 90% of the clientel in this field still just want to deal with a real person in front of them, and so these trades people are in fact losing a lot of business this way. But it's simply because they don't understand the value in that initial encounter, and in how important their relationship with the customer is. And that's due in large part to the fact that we are moving towards an era where computer systems are supposed to be able to "sell" things for us, so we don't have to. (And I'm talking specifically about the field of home maintenance work, because that's what my experience is from. I'm sure there could be other fields that use automated sales in an effective way.) But in reality, do those automated systems really sell things? Or do most customers still prefer a one-on-one encounter with a real person?
Lovely article, really enjoyed reading this. Cheers! :)
I think your area can play a role in how they treat you. Do you happen to know if these tradesmen have high or low competition for business in the area? How often would craftsmen in your area expect to be called to fix an issue in your house?
My own personal examples of two very different experiences
Our garage door broke. The ONLY craftsman in their area to fix it that we could find lived 30 minutes away. We had to wait over a week for him to even come out. Needless to say, he charged an outrages fee for his time. He also spent an “hour” to fix what was wrong with the motor. He took a few breaks including a lunch break. He also “only” accepted cash. We never want to see him again but he's also the only one that lives anywhere near here that can fix it. I’m sure he never expects to see us again as our garage door has only broken once in 15 years.
Where I live with our heat and humidity when your AC breaks you more or less are willing to pay, and expect a huge bill when it's summer. The guy came out within an hour of being called and fixed the issue in 15 or 20 minutes. Told us he's seen our type of issue a lot. Ants got in and caused some damage to the wiring. He gave us some solutions to try and prevent them from getting in, and also showed us what he had done to try and solve the issue from reoccurring. The guy was nice and we didn't feel he over charged us at all. Since then our AC has broken 2 other times and the repair guy is rather good at getting out to us on the day we call it in. If it's after 5 pm he will let us know ahead of time that he charges an after hours surcharge fee; otherwise, we would be one of the first people he would see the next day. Needless to say, we like doing business with the guy and feel he's a professional. Our only complaint is it takes him 3 or 4 weeks to cash a check so we just pay him in cash now.
People always stick with the tradesmen that give them a human service. The guy smoking weed sounds like a total loser. He probably made just enough money to get him by for a couple of days while he wondered why he wasn't busier.
We run a small business which involves some repair work and we always try to "cultivate" our customers. On the one hand my husband does a good job so it won't need repair again, but he's always willing to work with the customer on price or do a bit more than expected for the agreed fee.
And they will come back if they feel taken care of. And send their friends!
While we do take the money and run, we consider that we're planting a seed for the future.
Very true and this is partly why they have such a bad reputation at least in certain trades. Thing is once people find a good honest tradesman they tend to hang on to them and won't let them go - which is actually what you want as a business serving the public. Sadly many don't get that - they would rather gouge you in an emergency and run.
I detail card and tell people that its is a relationship business not a cleaning business :)
Taking the time to build relationships is the key to long term growth in any business. Not only will you drastically reduce churn, that extra effort you put into developing a good relationship will lead to many more customers through referrals. I love technology, but sometimes I think with the more technologically savvy we get and the time we invest in it, we lose the people skills necessary to properly function with each other in a mutually beneficial way on a day to day basis.
Many years ago there was a young bloke in an appliance store, as the customers came in moaning that something had broken, stoped working, he would spend how ever long it took to tell the customer how to fix the problem, and sell them the parts to do so.
The boss watched him deal with 2 or three costomers then called him into the office and fired him, for not selling new appliances.
The kid then explained how his idea worked, the customer bought all the parts to fix it themselves, sometimes they needed a special tool.
They left the shop very happy.
Next week they were back and bought a new appliance ,the old one was well stuffed by their attempt at repair, still with a smile because the young fella had been so helpful in the first place.and they told all their friends how helpful the young bloke had been. Increasing the shops reputation.
The boss rehired him and gave him a pay rise.
I can't believe they guy showed up to your house after just recently smoking and then had the nerve to offer you some when you rode with him to get the cash.
Word of mouth is the best advertisement there is out there. Too many people are not willing to work with people and would rather take the "extra $20" than create a satisfied customer who is going to bring repeat business and be a loyal customer.
We have been fortunate to find a handyman that can do just about anything. He charges a fair fee, works hard, and if there isn't something he can't do he refers us to the best person!
Building these relationships is so important in business.
Upvoted, absolutely agree! To be fair, I also think we Steemians are generally more socially aware, at least in this regard since that is such a key facet of success here (yes, I am tooting all of our horns here!).
The most successful Steemians here think long term, and in any case seem to actually enjoy building relationships. Even when an author has a "resteem, upvote, comment" image on the bottom of their article, if it's well thought out and clearly articulated, I'm all for giving them some love 😘
By the way, it's funny because I've been looking desperately for a good handyman the last few weeks @sevinwilson - if you happen to live near Bloomington, IN please give me his number :D #kindajokingbutseriously
Had an awful experience many years ago when I own a restaurant and the toilet busted. Got the plumber there and he said it was an emergency, he tried to gouge me high prices. I got pissed and kicked him out went to costco... bought a toilet and installed it myself that day. People these days! lol
He lost tons of business with me back then smh smh.