Damaging The Brand - and Beyond!
I had a kid – looked like high school age – come to my house today, wanting to do an estimate for painting my house. But to complete this story, I’m going to have to go back a few years.
In 2005, I had a college student drop by our house, looking to paint it. He was part of a well-known company that gives summer jobs to students, which is a nice objective. I ultimately had them do the work, because the price was reasonable and they assured me that they would give me personal attention and high quality.
To make a long story short, it didn’t happen. They did the work, but the quality was horrible and the promise of “we’ll make sure you’re happy with the work” didn’t happen. I chalked it up to a learning experience.
So today an even younger kid, with a different company, came by with a similar pitch. I had to tell him that I’ll now only do work with people that I know, and there’s no way I’d even have him give me an estimate on the work – despite the fact that he claimed their work would be “just as high quality” as another well-known painter in town.
I was reflecting on this whole chain of events. The first company did a number of things:
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They had a nice sales pitch, well rehearsed, which gave me high expectations. I don’t think I expected anything unusual, just a professional delivery of service.
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They dashed my hopes by delivering shoddy work. So bad, in fact, that I had people negatively commenting about the quality of their work shortly after they’d finished.
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Of course, they lost me as a customer, AND they lost everybody I’ve talked to about house-painting since 2005.
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They reinforced the problem when they showed up in 2006, telling me how shabby my house looked, and then disappeared when I asked if they would fix the problem.
Now here’s the really interesting thing: Not only did they damage their brand, for me and everyone I talk to, but they damaged the entire business model. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to consider having any home services done with someone who just shows up at my house with a clipboard.
So here’s the serious question for you: Are you delivering an experience to anybody – whether they’re a paying customer or not – which is going to drive business away this strongly?
If you’d like to have a business coach help you to answer that question, and to help you address any weaknesses, give me a call.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Hire Your Weakness
“As soon as you can afford it, hire your weaknesses.” – Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx
I heard this interesting quote on a news interview today, and Sara is clearly right on the target. She means that you look to hire people who fill in skills that you don’t have, where you’re weak.
Makes sense, right? But all too often we want to hire people who are like us. That makes us more comfortable, it makes us feel like we can “get more done” because things are going to work smoothly.
When two of you think the same, one of you is redundant.
Get out there and find people who are different, who fill in your gaps, who make you uncomfortable. Your business will be healthier for it.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
