Be EASY to Deal with and You'll WIN Often

We have a pool and when we moved in we had NO idea what we were doing, so we just kept using the same pool company that had been servicing the pool for years. Everyone told us that the smart way to go, so the day we signed the papers on the house, I called them to set up a pool closing. I was pretty proud of myself for being so organized. The lady said, “We’ve been booked for months. You should have called earlier.”

I explained that we just bought the house and didn’t know we would need a pool closing any earlier. I was expecting a friendly voice, welcoming a new client. Instead, she sighed heavily. This was the beginning of a rocky relationship.

From that point forward, when I called, I got voicemail more than half the time. They didn’t have a way to leave a voicemail, send an email or a text so you just had to keep calling back over and over again. When I did get in touch with them, they were testy and condescending, just like that first call. When they did come to fix things, they came and left without telling me anything, so I never knew what was happening.

When they billed us, there was no detail, so I didn’t know what in the world we were paying for.

Overall, they were just impossible to deal with. Even though everyone kept telling us it would make our lives so much easier to keep using them, since they built the pool and knew everything about it, I just couldn’t deal with them anymore. We moved on and I LOVE our new pool company. They are the polar opposite of that first company.

Although this is an extreme (but true) example, the premise holds for YOUR business. During my research, customers told me consistently that they want to deal with vendors who are friendly and easy to deal with. Here’s how to be easy to deal with:

Answer your phone.
Respond quickly to emails, even you’re just telling them you don’t have the answer yet and have to work on it.
Be friendly. This is the most common response I got during my research to the question: “What advice can you give to vendors?” Customers want pleasant, friendly vendors.

If you’re easy to deal with, your reputation will grow and customers will love you. I promise.

What has your experience been like? Let me know in the LinkedIn comments!

Would you like for me to come speak to your sales team or conference?  Click here for videos of me speaking and book a meeting with me to get pricing info!