May 7, 2010
"Global Warming" No Excuse For Poor Customer Service
"Global Warming" No Excuse For Poor Customer Service Cliff Ennico www.creators.com "My wife and I run a small lawn sprinkler service with five employees. We have over 3,000 customers in our area, who pay in advance for sprinkler service each February. The weather this April was unusually cold - the ground didn't start thawing out until early May so we weren't able to turn people's sprinklers on until then. Once the ground got soft we started driving around to different neighborhoods turning peoples' sprinklers on, but we're way behind. Also, a lot of people were on vacation, working or whatever when our crews stopped by their homes. So now the weather's been hot the past few days, and we're getting dozens of angry phone calls from customers saying their lawns are burning up because we haven't turned their sprinklers on. How can we convince them that it's 'global warming', and not our fault?" If you're looking for sympathy, pal, you've come to the wrong place. Your customers have already paid for service this year, and it's your job to provide it, cold weather or not. No one can control the weather, of course, but this isn't really a weather problem - it's a customer service problem, and that's always within your control. You had an entire month to plan for how you were going to handle this (admittedly tough) situation, and you obviously didn't take advantage of it. Did you take any steps to warn your customers that turn-on service was going to be a bit late this year due to an unusually cold April? Did you tell your customers in advance when your crews were going to be in their area to turn their sprinkler systems on? Did you make an effort to re-schedule customers who told you they weren't going to be home when your service crews were in their area? Obviously, it's too late to do any of that now. You've got some serious "damage control" to do; otherwise you are likely to lose lots of your customers, who will tell everyone who asks (and, believe me, people do) exactly why their lawns are brown this year. Here are some things you should do immediately: change your office's VoiceMail message, adding a statement that "sprinkler turn-on service will be slightly late this year due to an unusually cold April; we will call you when our service crews will be in your area, but if you need immediate service please leave a message and one of our representatives will call you today to schedule your turn-on service"; have one of your employees return every angry customer call you have received so far (as well as every customer who wasn't home when your service crew was in their neighborhood) and schedule their turn-on service so they know at least when it will happen; dedicate one of your work crews as a "swat team" and have them do nothing but service these angry customers - pay them overtime if you have to; as for customers living in neighborhoods you haven't visited yet, have another employee call each household a week in advance with the following message: "we are planning to visit your home on [date] to turn on your lawn sprinkler for the year; if you will not be home that day, please call us immediately so we can obtain some information from you to help service you better;" if a customer responds to that message, explain to them how to turn the water on in their basement (this is the only reason your service crew would need access to their home), and ask for the access code to their electronic garage door opener (most lawn sprinkler controls are in the garage) so the crew can access the sprinkler control without having to enter the house itself - that way your crew will be able to stay on schedule, and the customer won't have to worry that they missed your call because they were in the shower and couldn't hear the door bell ring; if a customer refuses to co-operate, reschedule their turn-on service for a time when they will be home, and add that to the call list for your dedicated "swat team" crew; consider renting extra trucks and hiring "day laborers" on a temporary basis so that each of your five employees (six, including you) can be out in the field servicing your customers at any given time; offer a discount on next year's service to those customers who made angry phone calls to your business - don't wait for them to ask for it. People install sprinkler systems so that their lawns don't burn up in the summer heat. If their lawns burn up because their system wasn't turned on in timely fashion, it's your fault, not the environment's. That's an "inconvenient truth" you ignore at your peril. Cliff Ennico ( cennico@legalcareer.com is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. His latest books are 'Small Business Survival Guide' (Adams Media, $12.95) and 'The eBay Seller's Tax and Legal Answer Book' (AMACOM, $19.95). This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2007 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.

Posted by Staff at 1:50 AM