Shoe Covers

As I was driving away from a customer’s home recently, a neighbor waved to me from his front porch. I pulled into his driveway and was invited into the house. He said that he had been planning on calling us for new service when he noticed me next door.

As we were talking in his entrance way, he stopped and pointed to the floor. I had mud on my shoes and had made a mark on the white throw rug. I was sick. I would not have done that in my own home. What was I thinking? He said that he would clean it (before his wife came home) and that it was “OK”, but his tone was as sincere as a mother-in-law’s kiss.

What a rookie mistake to make. He did become a customer and still is to this day, but I decided that I would never let that happen again. We purchased shoe covers from http://www.shubee.com/ and asked our service techs to start wearing them. Easier said than done. They pushed back on the idea and said that they usually removed their shoes (exposing worn socks with holes) when they entered homes anyway, implying that the shoe covers were unnecessary. I then started to require that they record that shoe covers were used on all their service work orders to be able to receive their monthly sales commission. They have been using them ever since.

What does it say to a customer when you enter their home with shoe covers? It shows that you respect their property and it implies that you will work on their equipment with the same level of professionalism. It’s the little things that differentiate you from your competition.

Grumbling Employees

Do small groups of employees talking in low tones make you nervous? Do I sound paranoid? Maybe, but when I saw a couple of the guys out in the yard talking on a regular basis, I decided to investigate.

When I spoke with them, they said that they had been observing my behavior and thought that I was getting ready to sell the business and that they might lose their jobs. This was not the case at all, so we started having 5-minute meetings every morning at 8:05am before everyone dispersed for the day. We needed everyone on the same page by communicating with each other. (I guess I was the one who needed to communicate.)

These meetings do occasionally go over 5 minutes, but we try to stick to it. We discuss what each person is doing that day, which implies that they should already have a plan ready the night before. If a call comes in or the plan changes, the strategy is discussed on the spot and everyone knows what is going on. If a customer has voiced a complaint, we will discuss the details and how it was handled. This has often worked to our advantage. When a bulk driver delivered to one such customer recently, the upset customer exaggerated the details of the situation. (That never happens, right?) The bulk driver was able to explain our position as well as the solution and why it was implemented, in detail, because we had discussed it that morning. It puts a lot of responsibility on the driver, I know. But, consider this.  He has been entrusted with a vehicle worth over $100,000 and sees our valuable customers face to face on a daily basis. Without these meetings, the guys would be tempted to say, “I don’t know. You’ll have to call the office.” Or, “They never tell me what’s going on.”

If your people are a part of what is going on, your customers will sense it and respond by doing business with you instead of the other guys.