Things that Shouldn't Be a Big Deal
How hard is it to show up when you say you will, to meet someone who is going to pay you money? How hard is it to tell a client that you're sorry you made a mistake? And just how hard is it to clean an empty house? These are the questions I have been pondering this week.
On Monday, I made arrangements to have housecleaners meet me at the house early Tuesday morning. The week before, I had scheduled to meet the heater repair guy the same day. So, on Tuesday, I drove the 25 miles in rush hour traffic to get to the house (which was freezing cold, thus the need for heater repair) and waited. And waited. And made some phone calls. And waited.
No one showed up. I never got through to the housecleaners to find out why they didn't show and they certainly never called me. The heating/AC company took two hours to call me back, and then they said they don't know why someone said they made an appointment with me. Apparently, they don't come to "my area" on this day of the week. (Nonetheless, someone did make an appointment with me for that date and time…which I repeated back twice!)
Fortunately, I'd left a local phone book in the otherwise-empty house and so I spent some time calling every housecleaner listed. One housecleaner said she could do the job in the evening, once she finished with her regularly scheduled job. She arrived at 6:30 pm and started working away. Meanwhile, my realtor called her heating/AC people and scheduled them to come out at the same time.
Here's a tip for small business owners: You can make people surprisingly happy just be showing up when you say you will. And if you forget or get lost, you can earn a lot of slack if you will just CALL the client as soon as you notice the problem. Don't ever leave a client waiting, because not only do you lose their business, but also the potential business of everyone they talk to!
Also, if you are able to take appointments on short notice, consider putting that in your phone book ad, newspaper advertisement, or website. You may be surprised how much business you can get from people who have been stood up by someone else.
I'd love to say that this story then had a happy ending, but it turned out the housecleaner did a lousy job. Unfortunately, it was dark and I wasn't able inspect the housecleaner's work as thoroughly as I might during the day. I'm not sure how cleaning an empty house can be difficult, but apparently it was for that housecleaner. I brought yet another housecleaner in today (the house is now staged and we have muddy footprints from all the workers) and now the place sparkles. I sure wish I lived in that area; I'd hire this last housecleaner in a flash! And the heater repair people my realtor sent? I'm hiring them to work on our new home.
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