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Yesterday evening I finally completed a sale with a customer for a door and side light which had been rumbling on for about two years!
I had originally quoted this particular customer two years ago, but after I had delivered the quote the lead went dead. But in September of this year she came back to the showroom to start looking at buying a door again. This customer is a nice person, but terribly pedantic. Every detail was considered, changed, changed back again and altered in some way. She was bouncing between a composite and an engineered door, whether to have it black or blue. She eventually ended up with three brand new quotes, all with different variations.
At this point most people would have given up on her. The constant 30 minute phone calls, 1 hour showroom visits regularly and endless questions. Most would have thought she was wasting their time. However I knew this person and she was a previous customer and knew she wasn’t going anywhere else. So I kept my patience.
So, last evening she came to the showroom again to go over the final details of the glass, the black on white engineered door, locking mechanisms again etc. Except this time she placed the order instead of going back to think it through some more! And one thing she did say was thank you for being so patient. She acknowledged that she can be a bit fussy at times, but that she appreciated the personal service we gave her because she now knows that the door will be 100% to her liking.
This basically again comes down to customer service. You buy off people, not from companies or the product itself. If your customer service is sloppy, you don’t stand a chance in a time where customers expect the most from who they are dealing with.
I had originally quoted this particular customer two years ago, but after I had delivered the quote the lead went dead. But in September of this year she came back to the showroom to start looking at buying a door again. This customer is a nice person, but terribly pedantic. Every detail was considered, changed, changed back again and altered in some way. She was bouncing between a composite and an engineered door, whether to have it black or blue. She eventually ended up with three brand new quotes, all with different variations.
At this point most people would have given up on her. The constant 30 minute phone calls, 1 hour showroom visits regularly and endless questions. Most would have thought she was wasting their time. However I knew this person and she was a previous customer and knew she wasn’t going anywhere else. So I kept my patience.
So, last evening she came to the showroom again to go over the final details of the glass, the black on white engineered door, locking mechanisms again etc. Except this time she placed the order instead of going back to think it through some more! And one thing she did say was thank you for being so patient. She acknowledged that she can be a bit fussy at times, but that she appreciated the personal service we gave her because she now knows that the door will be 100% to her liking.
This basically again comes down to customer service. You buy off people, not from companies or the product itself. If your customer service is sloppy, you don’t stand a chance in a time where customers expect the most from who they are dealing with.
