The Importance of Being an Expert and Keeping Customers Happy
2007 at 8:10pm | by Dave
You’ve probably heard the saying, “set yourself up as an expert” or something along those lines when reading about how to run a successful blog. It’s true, being viewed as an expert in your field is going to help you… presuming you know what you’re talking about.
Otherwise, you’ll only be able to keep the facade up for so long. This principle translates to almost any other business. I picked up my car from the garage yesterday. I took it in because there was a whine coming from the rear wheels, and my Dad thought it might be the wheel bearing. When I dropped it off, I said that we had thought it was a wheel bearing, and asked them to take a look.
About $200 later for replacing the wheel bearing, the noise is no different than it was… and I’m quite irate. I took the car to them because I perceived that they were experts at what they did, and that I could trust them to properly diagnose the problem and fix it.
Instead, they fixed something that probably wasn’t broken and the problem still exists; now they have a customer that won’t be giving them any return business and they made maybe $50 off the job (most of the cost was for parts). Let’s look at the direct result of this: not only have they lost my business, but it’s highly unlikely that my parents will return to that garage either. So they’ve lost repair work on my vehicle and both of my parents’ vehicles.
Not only that, but I’ll probably tell this story to friends and business associates from the area, so there is a potential for even more lost business there. A happy customer will continue to do business with you, and maybe tell one or two people about your business. An unhappy customer will likely tell 10 or more people about their experience.
So now because of one simple mis-diagnosis, there has been a direct impact on their business immediately (the loss of maintenance work on my vehicle, and my parents’ two vehicles) and the possibility of losing potential clients (anyone who talks to me about my bad experience). This type of far reaching consequence is why it’s so important to treat customers like gold, regardless of whether they’re purchasers of an electronic product or are a customer of a brick and mortar store.
I plan on giving them a call tomorrow about this issue, and perhaps we’ll have a story about answering complaints and customer service as a follow-up.
Good Profits.
