Up Your Business is an exclusive GEARS Magazine feature in which I share stories, insights, and reflections about real business and life challenges.
This article tells a story and provides a lesson we can all learn from, about two tradespersons from outside our industry. The stories come from my personal experiences with two professionals from separate industries that share challenges similar to ours.
I think you’ll agree that, like automotive repair, plumbers and appliance repair companies both have dubious reputations. Like us, they have to overcome the challenges related to being known for taking advantage of customers, skepticism over pricing policies, the customer fear that stems from the need to diagnose problems before giving accurate estimates or quoting final prices, the negative reputation for doing unnecessary repair work, etc.
Rob, the owner of Rob Bell Plumbing, and Ernie, the owner of E&J Appliance Repair, are great examples of how it should be, and perhaps provide us with customer-centric business models that make them stand out from their competition and that we can apply in our businesses.
A friend referred me to Rob Bell Plumbing about four years ago when I was experiencing a problem with the water softener in one of my rental units. Being new to the area and not yet having needed a plumber, I asked a friend if he knew a good one.
My friend’s referral included this ringing endorsement: “The one thing I’ll tell you about Rob is that he won’t take advantage of you. He’ll show up on time, give you a firm price quote before beginning repairs, do the job right, leave the place clean, and stand behind his work.”
Notice there was nothing about Rob being the cheapest, but my later comparisons to what other friends paid for their water softeners were all within spitting distance of what Rob charged.
On the phone, Rob told me that he was familiar with the model I owned; that it was obsolete and parts were both scarce and expensive. He quoted the price for a new water softener, including installation and sales tax, and stated that he’d confirm whether the old one was worth fixing before installing a new one. I told him just to bring out a new one, because I didn’t want to inconvenience my renter any more than she already had been.
Rob showed up on time, assessed the situation, and even suggested a better location to free up some extra storage space in the garage. Even though the relocation involved more time and materials, he installed it without a hitch and the bill was exactly as quoted. His overall service was just as my friend had described. Now he gets all my work, plus referrals from me and from the people I’ve referred to him. Isn’t that the way it should be?
A couple years after that first visit, I replaced the water softener and remodeled the kitchen and two bathrooms in my home. Guess who got that plumbing job.
Recently, the water softener in my rental house starting acting up again. Even though it was out of the manufacturer’s warranty, rather than dismissing it as being beyond his control, Rob stepped up and took care of it at no charge. He said that it should have lasted much longer than it did.
A few months ago, I was having problems with the icemaker and interior LEDs on my side-by-side refrigerator. Since all my appliances were fairly new, I hadn’t needed any appliance repairs to that point. But now the warranty had expired. I searched the internet for possible quick fixes, but none of them worked, leaving me a bit confused and somewhat frustrated.
I moved on from searching the internet for fixes to trying to find a repair company I could trust. I had no luck finding one that didn’t have negative posts about them for a variety of reasons, which only fueled my frustration and fear of making a bad choice in the appliance repair “crap shoot.”
I called a few friends, but they all reported bad experiences, and what I’d hoped would be referrals became more like admonitions: “Whatever you do, don’t call so and so.”
Then I thought of Rob Bell Plumbing. I’m not sure why, but I figured Rob might know somebody as trustworthy as he is. He referred me to E&J Appliance Repair.
Rob’s recommendation went something like this, “I’ve never personally needed to use E&J Appliance, but I met the owner, Ernie, a couple years ago when we were both doing jobs for the same customer. I liked the way he treated the customer and the customer seemed very pleased with his work. Since then, I’ve referred him to several of my customers and friends, and I’ve never heard any bad feedback. I guess that’s a good sign.” He added, “I guess he liked me, too, because he’s referred a few customers to me since then.” Once again I ask you, isn’t that the way it should be?
My experience with E&J Appliance totally exceeded my expectations. When I called them, the phone representative was friendly, confident, and reassuring. She asked good questions about my problem: make, model, approximate age of my fridge, and if I could describe what it was doing.
She then explained how they could help. She said that it would involve a service visit to diagnose the problem. This would be $85 and then I’d be given a firm price quote for parts and labor. If I approved the repairs, the $85 would apply to the cost of the repair, but if I chose not to have it fixed, that’s all I would owe them. Sounds similar to our business, doesn’t it?
At any rate, I agreed to an appointment and things went from good to great. One hour before the scheduled time, they called to let me know Ernie was running ahead of schedule and could be there in 30 minutes. 25 minutes later, Ernie was ringing my doorbell. He was very polite, neatly dressed, and ready to go to work.
He quickly ran some tests (don’t ask me what) and got busy on his iPad, I presume to confirm parts and prices. He took the time to show me what he believed to be the problem. He said it could be the icemaker circuit board, the motherboard, or both.
His quote was for both, but he said he would replace the icemaker board first because it was the least expensive and, in his opinion, it would most likely take care of the problem. He said that he needed to order the icemaker circuit board, but since the fridge was still cooling properly, he thought the potential cost savings made it worth trying first.
A couple days later, E&J called to let me know the part was in and Ernie could come out that afternoon. Again, he showed up a little early and went straight to work. After replacing the new part, he told me it didn’t fix the problem, but he’d come back the next day with the motherboard. We agreed to a time and, sure enough, he was on time again.
Now for the first big surprise: He said he’d try the motherboard with the old icemaker circuit board; I might not need both after all. It turned out I only needed the motherboard and, even though it was the more expensive of the two boards, it ended up saving me a couple hundred dollars over buying both.
And now, the biggest surprise of all… his bill was only for the motherboard and the first service call! He’d made three trips to my house and performed the repair all for the original $85 service call, and only charged for the part that actually corrected the problem.
I was blown away and asked why he didn’t charge for the extra trips or repair labor. He said that he felt it was on him that he didn’t choose to put the right part in the first time and that the extra trips were due to his mistake. He said there was no extra charge because, if he’d made the correct repair the first time, it would have been covered by the first service call, so he wouldn’t have had to charge any extra labor.
I told him that I thought he’d erred on my side, attempting to save me money, and he should at least charge a little extra for his added time. Imagine a customer actually saying he thought he should pay more, but that’s how I felt. He just said he’d rather take the hit than lose a customer and that he stands behind his recommendations as well as his parts and labor.
Of course there was no way he was going to lose me as a customer with that attitude. In fact, he’s already gotten referrals from me as well as from the customers I’ve referred. When I recently saw his truck at my neighbor’s house, I went over to thank him again for all he’d done and praised him right in front of my neighbor. Isn’t that the way it should be?
So let’s look at how Rob and Ernie do business and the lessons we can learn from them. Here are the customer-centric attributes they share that provide a model for our industry and, for that matter, any service industry:
- Integrity — their policies and procedures leave no doubt regarding their honesty and integrity.
- Show up on time — they both have formed the habit of being on time or early.
- Do what they say they’re going to do — they under-promise and over-deliver.
- Do the job right — if it isn’t right, they make it right.
- Stand behind their work and their mistakes — they even stand behind their judgment.
- Clean up after the job is done — neither of them left any debris, smudges, or dirt behind.
- Fair pricing with no surprises — stand by their price quotes. E&J even made two extra trips and only charged for the first one.
Now look back over that list. How difficult is it to do everything on that list? If you just do these things well and consistently, you’ll stand out from the competition, just like Rob and Ernie. Perhaps you’re already doing all these things: If you are, congratulations… but if not, why not?
Just think about it: I was so impressed to find companies that consistently provide these basic services that I give them tons of referrals and, on top of that, now I’m telling their stories in this international magazine article!
You might say that I just got lucky, but I believe anyone needing plumbing or appliance repairs is lucky if they get someone like either Rob or Ernie. Now isn’t that how it should be?
It’s up to you to figure out how to apply these customer-centric principles to provide your customers with a great auto repair experience that they can’t wait to share with their friends and family. Just imagine having customers so happy with your company that they can’t wait to tell others about you.
That’s how it should be!
Share Your Stories
If you’ve personally experienced a weird or unusual customer dispute and wouldn’t mind sharing it to help your industry, please contact me. You just tell me the story and I’ll do all the heavy lifting to write it.
We can make it an article about you, or you may remain anonymous. The main thing is we want to share stories that will help others avoid similar problems. Call me at 480-773-3131 or email me at coachthom@gmail.com.
About the Author
Thom Tschetter has served our industry for nearly four decades as a management and sales educator. He owned a chain of award-winning transmission centers in Washington State for over 25 years.
He calls on over 30 years of experience as a speaker, writer, business consultant, and certified arbitrator for topics for this feature column.
Thom is always eager to help members of our industry and continues to be proactive in pursuing ways to improve your business and your life.
