Client Follow-Up

My husband and I recently bought a new house.  It was built in 1985 and needs a  bit of work.  Our latest project was replacing the two large sliding glass doors in the living room.  One of them is twelve feet wide, so we are talking large.

We went on the internet and picked out a company that we thought would give us the product we wanted.  The salesman came to our house and gave us his pitch.  We signed on the dotted line that day.  This was an easy sale.

Two weeks later the doors were installed and they are beautiful.  Unfortunately there were a few problems.  We called the salesman and he said he would be out the following morning.

He didn’t show up.  He didn’t call.

He called at 9:00 the next morning and apologized for not coming by.  He asked if he could come by at 6:30 that night.  I said that was too late in the day and asked if he could come by earlier.  He had to think about that and said he would call back and let me know.  He finally called back and said he could not come by until the following day.

I have a real problem with this whole situation.

First, if you say you are going to be somewhere, you make sure you are there.

Second, if you can’t be there, you call immediately to let the client know.

Third, if there is a problem, you make sure it gets fixed as soon as possible.

This salesman obviously does not want our business.  As I said, our house was built in 1985.  We have lots of old windows that will need to be replaced.  This could have been another easy sale.  Instead, I will probably find another company to do the job.  A company that will treat the client like someone who matters.  A company that I can count on to fix a problem if it arises.  A company that will be there every step of the way.  A company that understands what client follow-up is.

This is not rocket science.  This is just good business sense.  Why do some people just not get it??