You know, people are stupid. Really, profoundly stupid. I'm learning that more and more with each passing day.
To be sure, there has been ample evidence of it the last thirty years of my life. What does yet should not astound me is how I can still be amazed when it happens.
The latest examples come from my sales job. In directing a potential new customer to my store, I cautioned him not to go beyond Warren Avenue here in Detroit; he would have gone too far if he had. An hour later I get a call from the guy's cell. He was more than a mile beyond our place of business. "I saw Warren and never saw you so I kept on going," he explained to me. You saw the street which I told you was too far and KEPT GOING? It never occurred to you to circle around?
My other phone started ringing, so I hung up on him. Dumb ass.
Another fella called to asked if he could have his snake (slang for the drain cleaning equipment we sell) repaired by us. "Probably, but tell me what you have so that I can tell you if I have access to the parts you might need," I asked.
"A snake," he responds.
"Okay," I said, trying to be patient, "But what type of machine exactly?"
"Uhh, the kind that opens sewers."
I barked, "I need a make and model number."
"Uhhhhhh, y'all worked on it 'bout five years ago..." he began.
Click.
Dang. I hung up on my only customer from 2004. That was such a good year too.
I tell you, the Harvard Business School is dead wrong. The customer isn't always right. Often he's the worst part of your business.
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1 comment:
I've been reading a through The Four Hour Work Week, and while I don't know if the program as a whole is actually feasible or not, one of the tenants of "Elimination" claims that it's really not worth it to deal with those elements. That, in fact, it's less stressful, significantly less time consuming, and only marginally less profitable to focus almost solely on "good" customers.
Honestly, it makes sense to me. From my own experience working retail, it was rarely worth putting in hours of effort, setting other tasks aside, and just genuinely stressing over helping someone with a $20 purchase, and I certainly don't see myself doing it if I ever have the power to make those decisions.
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