Don’t Make Your Customers Get Defensive
This week’s marketing tip is a no brainer to most of us, but unfortunately many businesses overlook this principle.
Marketing Principle: Never make your customer feel uncomfortable when a problem surfaces. If you are at fault, do what it takes to take full responsibility. If the customer is at fault, don’t let them get defensive. Create a win-win outcome.
Related To Marketing?
How does this relate to marketing, one might ask? Everything you do in your business, good and bad, is marketing. The way you answer the phone, your voicemail greeting, customer service, the appearance of your employees, it sends a message to the consumer: hopefully a positive one!

My Personal Story
The principle I mentioned above is relavant to me this week because I had a situation (still going on) with a service contractor that made me get a little defensive and feel like the bad guy. I won’t mention their names (yet) because they are still in the middle of trying to work on my situation. A long story short, this company provided a service to my home which unfortunately caused a small leak in a pipe that was not fully shut off for several hours. An honest mistake and and an easy fix once discovered. It damaged my ceiling tiles in my finished basement in the 4 hours the leak took place. I’ve had lots of experience dealing with ceiling leaks (being in the painting business) so I knew the water stains were NOT going away. I contacted the company who apologized, came back out, fixed the pipe so it would not happen again and then said, “Call us in a few days once things dry out and see if everything looks ok.” I thought to myself, “Several tiles are brown and still soaking wet…and that is supposed to vanish in 3 days?” I knew right there that this employee was not taking full responsibility. I’m a nice guy and responded pleasantly, “Ok I can do that. BUT those ceiling tiles are soaked to the bone and are stained! I don’t think that is going away. What can you do about it?” His response, “Yeah you are probably right. But go ahead and call us in a few days and see how things are looking.” He then took a few pictures and went away. Hearing nothing from the staff, I made a call 4 days later to follow up. The sales person who sold me the water system called me back the next day. He was very professional on the phone yet still lacked the marketing principle in this post. Even though he was sorry and being positive, he put too much pressure on me and wondering what I wanted to do about the situation. What he should have done is simply said, “Dave, I’m sorry about your tiles. We’ll take care of this and don’t you worry about a thing.” If he said that, I would have backed down and not gotten defensive. Yet I’m still waiting for a call back and a solution that will hopefully not make me look like I’m the one who caused the leak.
The Little Things Matter
It is possible to have a few bad apple customers from time to time. Things happen! Yet it is how you deal with those customers that will determine if they will be back in the future or be customers for life. Yes, maybe there happen to be customers you’d rather not want back. If that is the case, the little things still matter. Follow the principle above and make sure even the tough customers don’t get defensive at the end of a project. You might keep a few from telling their friends or writing nasty reviews online, because you’ve done the right thing. I’ve seem my own father follow this principle numerous times and he rarely ever has customers who walk away upset. He has even returned money to frustrated customers (even when it is the customers fault!). What do you do to keep customers comfortable with your service? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.
If you are ready to move more towards the small gadgets for your reading, web searching, emailing and so on, then you are probably wondering if you should get an iPad, a Kindle or an Android Tablet, right? I hope to shed some light on some of the main differences between the iPad and the Kindle. I will not be focusing on Android Tablets or the Barnes & Noble Nook. I do have an Android Tablet but just don’t use it. I did not purchase the Nook as I was already a pretty loyal Amazon customer. I use both the iPad and the Amazon Kindle, and I like them both.
I subscribe to a monthly publication called
Tina from the blog,
I could not agree more with small business owner, Marcus Sheridan, on his latest blog post,
Whenever it is possible, always install a job sign during your project. Some contractors have two signs: a quality, reusable one during the project and a less expensive sign they can leave behind when finished. Some communities do not allow yard signs. However, if you can, make it a part of your system.
Isn’t this New Media world we live in exciting! LOL I know what my contractor audience is thinking, “David I can’t take it anymore! To many new toys, gadgets, sites, likes, followers…ahhh!” Well, I’m hear to tell you about another one! Actually, many of you have already heard of it. It’s called Foursquare. It is a GPS mobile app where an individual checks-in at a local business, shopping center, park, government building and so on. It is a mini social networking program where the individual can have friends connected to his or her check-ins and can comment, share, become the mayor of a business and even offer tips about the place they are visiting. Foursquare is unique in that it offers users specials based on where they check in at. The local business of course has to sign up to offer these specials. How it works: A user looks at his device, finds the name of the place he is at, clicks “Check in Here” and if there is a special, he’ll get a coupon that a business can type in a code or scan the device. Foursquare keeps track of the person’s check ins at each location and can earn points as well as become the mayor (person who has checked in the most/recent).
I recently told a few of you about a simple scheduling program for Google Calendar that I liked called
Last week I reminded my friends to ask for referrals. It is a simple thing to do but often overlooked. This week, I have yet another simple suggestion: write a thank you note to a prospect when you get a “no.” Here is what is going on in my mind and probably yours as well: “Wait a minute, the guy used another contractor! He told me my price was more than double the other guy! The homeowner was a jerk! If I did that for all the nos I get in a week, that is like 2 hours of writing notes per week. I simply don’t have the time!” blah blah blah! Head Trash! Purely head trash!