Page 171 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

I had a situation when one of our licensees was trying to deal with an issue by email. Although I said to go and see them and discuss face-to-face, he continued this trail of emails. The tone in the emails was getting worse and heated and less likely to get a solution. I stepped in and fixed it by forcing a face-to-face. It appeared the customer was a little confused and that confusion was creating frustration and the licensee was not helping in his email communication. A face-to-face meeting solved the issue in a few minutes by clear, verbal, personal communication.
Often I used to turn dissatisfied customers into our advocates, and the return on investment was massive and long term.
For the same guy (yes, a bad apple), I sorted a complaint out by visiting the out-of-town customer and came to solution that cost me some money and the installer some labour time. The deal was made with a handshake. Then the licensee’s mother (yes, mother) interfered and said they would not do it and wanted more money to cover their extra time. I said, ‘Fine. Under consumer law you will pull it out, reinstate the ceiling and paint the room, which will be at a considerable cost.’ I just would not tolerate this poor service and this type of poor behaviour towards customers. They came around in the end and the customer was happy.
By the way, these ‘bad apples’ must be removed from your business and often this requires a bit of ‘mongrel’ (see Part 3: Chapter 9). Do it