Emailing your database... Always a bit nerve-wracking...

[Mikey P]

I only do a send out once or twice a year but every time it brings out a nut or two..

One of the reasons we never do follow up calls is all due to the amount of kooks in this town who will waste our time asking us for a revisit to re-groom the carpet after Mister Tinkers left a foot print on the wet carpet.

Anyhow I sent this out today..


Dear Gillian
I’m stuck in the office this month nursing a broken foot and while Davis and Ely are out and about cleaning in what turned out to be a busy January due to the lack of rain, I’m a bit bored..
I thought I would reach out to our loyal and loving client base with some news of a few of exciting things happening here @ Connoisseur.
First off, we will need to hire another employee real soon in order to keep up with demand. If you happen to know of a young energetic people person with a strong back, a big smile, who loves dogs and cats, doesn't mind 5 long days a week and isn't afraid of the cooties, please have them send a resume to this email address.
Second, The Good Time’s Best Of poll is up and running and we would really appreciate your help in earning us Best Carpet Cleaner in Santa Cruz for the 6th straight year. You can vote HERE. Thank you very much!
Thirdly, I received a letter from a pet rescue origination that I orchestrated a benefit raffle for last September. I sort of lost touch with them and was really pleased and proud when they sent me this letter to follow up with what they earned and did with the funds..
You can read that letter HERE on our Blog

And last but not least, please check out our other Blog postings if you've been thinking of a new vacuum cleaner or new carpet as I've added some real valuable information to it to make your shopping decisions much easier. For those of you who have any type of hard floor surfaces in your home, THIS is by far our most popular entry..
I’m really looking forward to getting this cast off and being back on the truck cleaning up after your pets, kids and husbands real soon
Until then,
Here’s wishing you soft fluffy carpets and bright sparkly grout!
Mike @ Connoisseur

-----------------------------------


Within minutes I got a few remove from your database requests. All looked like people who moved away a couple of best wishes for my foot, a few I'll pass your employee info alongs and this flipperdoodle..

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your email. I’m glad you reached out to me since this will give me the opportunity to let you know about a concern that has been on my mind for several months.



I have used your services a couple of times to clean my carpets and vinyl floors (I’m at work so I don’t have the paperwork in front of me). The last time you did my carpets I asked for a quote for steam cleaning my vinyl floors. I was given a quote of $130.00 which I thought was a great deal. When your crew showed up to clean the floors, they would not honor the quote even though it was in writing. I was told that the quote was only valid if I had the carpets cleaned along with the floors. I was not told that initially. I was also told that $150.00 was your minimum charge. I was not told that initially either.

I understand this is only $20.00 but it’s not really about the money, is it? It’s about honoring your word. Since then I have not done business with you nor do I want to in the future because quite frankly it is all about a level of trust that has been lost on me.

Another difficulty I have is that you and your boys do such a great job and your customer service is amazing. It’s hard to argue with quality but still I have this reservation that I cannot trust your word again. It isn’t easy to find another supplier who will steam clean my floors but I would rather work with someone who is not-so-responsive or the quality of their work is not quite as good as yours but who I know I can trust rather than have them come back to me and tell me they’re sorry but they cannot honor their quote.

I am a Buyer with **** and I always ask my suppliers for a quote and I make sure they stick to their figures. If not, I have a legal department that can deal with them. Sadly, I do not have a lawyer who can handle these issues for me. If I am burned, I move on to someone else…period. When I get your mailings, they go straight in the recycling bin. You might as well take me off your mailing list. Why would I want to recommend Connoisseur to anyone if I can’t trust you myself?

You seem like an honest person and concerned about your business so this makes this situation doubly difficult and indeed baffling.

My best wishes for a swift recovery,

T0 which I replied..

Hi K******

There was definitely some miss-communication on our part if we led you to believe that we could come out for less than our minimum. For that I truly apologize. Whether it was myself or our former answering service who booked to the job without letting you know, I will take full blame. When I was out to give your the estimate I should have been more clear about our minimum charges then as well.

Our trustworthy reputation in town was not earned by misleading customers as I'm sure you know. Your incident was a mistake that I would have hoped my guys would have just let the $20 difference go for that visit with an explanation that any future services would have to reflect our minimum charge.

My son who was there that day, who will one day be taking over the business knows full well that the profit margin on a minimum charge job is not much more than $20 so he try's to stick to it. I'm hoping to install in him the true value of a satisfied customer is far more important than twenty dollars..

I'm going to hope he didn't quite grasp how you really felt and chock that up to his age.

If you would like to have your vinyl cleaned this year I'd love to honor the $130 cost one more time in order to gain your trust back.

Please call me direct @ 588 *** when and if you are ready to do so.

and thank you very much for bringing this to my attention



Mike@Connoisseur




to which she replied..

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your kind response. As you can probably tell, I am still a bit reluctant to take advantage of your services now. I will keep your email on file and give you a call directly if/when I decide to take advantage of your offer.



All the best,

Kathryn

So is it just me or she implying that despite our great customer service and our wonderful workmanship I'm still just a crook out to rob single ladies in their mobile homes of 20 lousy dollars?


Thankfully I did get this from a lady who manages a 200 million dollar home/estate..

Dear Mike,


Sorry to hear about your foot! I had foot surgery 2 years ago and I know how hard it is to be forced to sit still and not drive or work – errr… that was very hard for me but even worse was to be dependent on others – that was a new thing for me and I have to say I hated it!


Thank you for the updates. I passed your email on to a co-worker who lives in Santa Cruz, she might know someone who might be looking for a new employment opportunity. Also, she might need her carpets done!


Take care and happy new year. We will be calling you when we need to address the upholstery and carpets here in *******


L*****

Hi L*****


I'm in a cast for a month in hopes that it will let an "Accessory Bone" heal, if not surgery 3 months of a non weight bearing cast and a month or more of rehab awaits..




ugh..



Thanks for passing the word along!



Mike

That’s terrible! Mine was weight bearing and I was walking in one of those lovely Frankenstein boots about 2-3 weeks after the surgery. Just worked from home for about 5-6 weeks and no driving for about 7-8 weeks.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that your bone heals while in the cast.


Take care. Just a tip from me is try to keep fit as best you can, sit ups/core anything you can do…. I gained some weight during that time which was really hard for me to get off plus it was more pressure on my foot. Also, mentally it might help. Being chubby was kinda depressing for me and not being able to walk it off or do yoga. which were the only 2 types of exercise I ever did, really sucked.

such is life...

 

[smastio]

Well... this explains why you never got back to me on my question today! LOL
To busy typing stuff. FYI if she booked on line she wouldn't have had a chance to book less than your minimum, no matter what she chose.

 

[Mikey P]

lol....great point.


I'm sure I told her that IF she had the vinyl done with the carpet it would be $130 but I didn't want to argue.



Just booked an estimate for a fatty for a new customer who's friend sent him that email today...



Virtual communication is the future.

 

[JS41035]

Good response man

If she was fishing for a refund or free work she didn't get it. And if she really thought that you were dishonest, anything you give her just validates the suspicion.
I had a similar situation. A woman wanted a bunch of stuff done. I quote the job. Then she asks about a small ottoman her dog sleeps on. And a hall runner. 35 bucks. And when I show up. She only wants the ottoman cleaned and the rug.
I couldn't tell if she was scamming me or not. But we didn't mention min charge.
She treated me like a con artist. Really my fault for bad communication. Honored my phone quote and went on my way.

 

[hogjowl]

Does Taco know your giving estimates on fattys? ig:

 

[Desk Jockey]

Good responses.

 

[PrimaDonna]

I may have put the ball back in her court. Give the explanation that you did about the mistake and your son, accept responsibility then ask "What can I/we do to restore your trust in us?"

I've found that one of three things happen with this approach.

1. They are caught so off gaurd they don't knew what to say or ask for and they say it's ok, don't worry about it.

2. They say something along the line of "because you asked and made an effort, nothing. That gesture and the fact you offered is enough"

3. They ask for less than I was prepared to give or do. People don't want to come off as stingy and taking advantage of you if you offer a sincere apology. Sometimes they even feel a little bad or guilty because they expected that you were going to dig in and maybe push back (because that is the experience they usually have in these situations) so they request less of a concession then you would expect.

Many people would say no way to this approach. The person will ask for a full refund. I'm not going to do that. Remember, just cause you ask what they would like, doesn't mean you have to do it. You still can offer an explanation why its not plausible if it's something you really can't stomach doing. There will always be that 1 person who does ask for the moon. But more times than not, you'll get one of the three responses.

 

[Shane Deubell]

We hit them every month. Prospects, customers, leads everyone

 

[hogjowl]

Who's afraid of being stingy?

 

[EDS]

Excellent customer service and brilliant initial email. I definitely need to imitate your email bomb.

This is my third year in business and I'm training my brother in law to run the truck. Now that I have more time on my hands I can start to focus on customer retention, sales growth and Web presence.

 

[knoxclean]

Meg is very good at this stuff. Great response. We use the same wording. I can't remember where I learned it from but I can only assume it came from Steve T.

 

[Dmreed4311]

That was a great email, you got a lot done in that one email.

 

[Mark Saiger]

We had a similar type the other day....

Was even a bit out of our smaller minimum service charge, and I did tell her we had a minimum when booking

But, she pulled out a 10% off card to take off the minimum....

My son in law called me (while we were driving back home from Florida) as to what to do....asked if it was OK?

Told him, yes as he indicated pretty easy job....so we made her very happy.....and then she made the check out for more and gave the son in law a $12 extra tip

Oh well, she must have felt she had control a bit more....was extremely happy and Aron made a few extra bucks...

The second job after that the guy also was beating him up on the price and some other things (even made Aron late for next job).....

The son in law still learned a valuable lesson, but had a hell day with a water damage that came in as soon as he would have been done

Poor kid, but was good learning experience, and our clients are still happy....