Imagine you’re a plumber and you received a call at 9am from a residential customer who had blocked sewage pipes and was in desperate need of an expert to come and rectify things.
You took the call, quoted the job and committed to have a plumber onsite by 4pm that day. The customer accepted the appointment.
4pm came and went; no plumber appeared at the customer’s home. At 4.45pm the customer called to check where the plumber was. No answer – went to voicemail.
At 5.15pm the customer made another call – went to voicemail again.
At 6pm the customer makes a third call to an after-hours number on your website. They make contact with the after-hours service, very distressed that their sewage pipes are still blocked and they have no toilets!
The response received was: “Our apology, we’ve had a lot of calls and appointments today and been overbooked. Can we arrange a time for tomorrow?”
How do you think the customer feels at that moment?
Is it likely they will ever use your plumbing business again?
Would they provide their neighbour – or their many Facebook friends! – with a positive recommendation about your service if their friends or neighbours ever needed a plumber?
I read a great line the other day from a blog that was discussing the concept of over-promising and under-delivering. It said: “Under poor leadership, it’s tempting to prioritize landing new clients over maintaining current ones. At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to win over a new client with big promises you can’t deliver on, but to continually impress the ones you have.”
It’s critically important to dynamically understand your business’s strengths, weaknesses and capabilities, and be careful not to burn your team, your bank balance and your clients.
Before you go selling your services, make sure your delivery ‘pipes’ can match your sale promise, and ensure your growth aspirations are well-founded.
If you need advice on planning for growth and executing your business model to deliver sustainable value, we'd love to help. Visit the JPAbusiness website for more information, or call our team on 02 6360 0360 or 02 9893 1803 for a confidential, obligation-free discussion.