100 Reasons

There was a day years ago when I posted a challenge on The Wall at HeatingHelp.com.  I asked the contractors who visit there just about every day to give me 100 reasons why folks should do business with them. Why them and not the other guy? What makes them so special?

Most of the posters struggled to put together a half-dozen or so reasons, and that was after thinking about it for hours. And the reasons were all pretty vague. We’re your best value. Stuff like that. But what’s value to you might not be value to them. They may see low prices as value, and what do you say then?

But then this one guy showed up and dropped 100 reasons (and they were all good ones) right onto the site. We were all astounded. I wrote him an email and asked him how he had managed to come up with his list so quickly and he said, “Quickly?  We’ve been working on that list for years You don’t get a list like that without thinking about it for a good long time, and by testing it with customers.”

I’ve been thinking about that guy for years. He sure knew how to make good use of his time. When a potential customer has any doubt about hiring this man, the man just starts laying out the 100 reasons why hiring his company is the best choice.

1. We answer our phone during the day.
2. We have emergency numbers for after hours.
3.  We limit the number of new clients we take on so we will be available to our loyal customers.
4. We don’t overbook our day (in case an emergency comes up).
5. We work our schedule around yours.
6. We work weekends by appointment for your convenience.
7. We will come out after-hours to an emergency
8. We staff our shop to meet the demands of our workload.
9. We don’t overwork our technicians so they’ll be at their best for you.
10. We schedule our work properly so you won’t have to wait the entire day for us show up.
11. We keep in contact with our techs so we know when they will be available for you.
12. We call you to let you know if we are running late.
13. We will return the same day if something goes wrong.
14. We will let you cancel an appointment, without prejudice, if something comes up.
15. We will always make time for our loyal customers, especially if all they need is some advice.
16. We network with other contractors in our area to back us up when we start to get overbooked with work.
17. We will even send out the secretary in the office to turn off your water in an emergency if you are unable to do it.
18. We have a chain of command of who will be sent out after hours so if one person is unavailable, the next one will fill in.
19. We allow our employees to take their trucks home to be able to respond to after hours calls more rapidly.
20. We won’t cancel your appointment because somebody “better” needs us right now.

And there were 80 more equally good reasons. He told me that each was a variation on these five themes: Availability, Knowledge, Workmanship, Price, and Warranty, and then he said. “Meeting any one of these themes may get you some jobs, but put them all together and you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.”

To which I can only add, Amen.