Our garage door collapsed…HELLO?
Our garage door fell off the track at 2:30pm Tuesday.
Being all thumbs, I called a repair firm whose great reviews promised both fast response and 24-hour repair service.
Most service technicians are in great demand these days, so I didn’t sweat their lack of immediate reply. My primary concern was to not have the garage open overnight so critters wouldn’t nest in there and strangers wouldn’t steal anything.
At 3:30 I called again, then again at 4:30. The silence to my increasingly panicky messages suggested to me a trend.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, so at 5pm I stopped waiting and called Door Dorks. They also offered 24-hour service, though I skeptically anticipated more of the same type of treatment.
Imagine my surprise at 6pm when their office administrator called. She was 2 miles down the road on her way home and wanted to come over on her own time to examine the situation. I was thrilled!
Gina assessed the challenge, consulted with a tech over how best to handle things, and helped us stabilize the door. It wasn’t going to be fixed that night, but she put us at ease.
Gina called at 8am Wednesday to ensure there were no further problems. The tech arrived at 9:30, with everything fixed by 10:30. They were VERY professional, personable, and interested in pleasing us...all for a reasonable cost.
Then, as the job was wrapping up, the first company called to schedule an appointment.
No thanks…I’ll be calling Door Dorks with my future garage door issues.
Here are two realities in today’s marketplace:
1) Regardless of what you sell, you’ve got competition.
2) Seemingly everything is in short supply these days.
Layer atop that the reality that customers won’t call you until they need you. And when they do call, they expect you to jump.
The fact is Door Dorks didn’t do the work immediately. The garage was still open all night, and the other guys were probably competitively priced.
The difference, though, is that the Dorks answered my call.
Which brings it down to this; the company that ignores customers will probably never hear from them again. And whoever answers a customer’s email or phone call first is going to capture their business…probably for the long-term.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.