Please Tell Me You Don’t Do This

I’ve been a little quiet lately because we recently moved house, had boxes to unpack, had a previously booked holiday to go on and some visits from a well known broadband provider in order to get our internet working.

Part of the moving process was to find a removals firm.

I ended up getting 4 firms in to quote and, as I’m sure you know, it’s not a trivial process. They have a good look around, make copious notes and promise to send a quote, which they all did.

It was what happened after that that I couldn’t fathom.

Only one firm called back to talk through the quote. Why didn’t the others? My wife and I and our two Labradors lived in a converted barn and have quite a lot of stuff and so it wasn’t a trivial move by any means and hence was business worth winning.

These firms spent time and money getting to our property, surveying what the move entailed and back in the office putting together a quote. Why wouldn’t they then follow-up? Actually, another firm did eventually call back. They called the day before we were moving!

Fortunately the firm that did call back were our first choice and so they won the business. The others made it really easy for us to make that decision.

Having moved into our new house there is some work we need doing as soon as possible and have contacted a couple of firms. One has quoted but not come back and the other apologised for their lack of response when we had to chase our initial enquiry and promised to provide an estimate based on our requirement. We haven’t heard from them since.

In case this is indicative of the way they would carry out the work we have found a different firm to talk to. Plus I have little inclination to pay firms that I have to chase to get their interest to provide their service.

Now this might sound like I’m writing a rant post but that’s not what this is about. Clearly there are companies out there that do this and so, at the risk of stating the obvious, all I’m saying is please tell me you don’t do this.

Please tell me that you have the systems and processes in place from receiving a lead, whether via your website, an email or a phone call, to quoting and especially to following up.

Please make sure that you have a process that has the customer in mind so that the journey from the first touch (which could be your website or a phone call) to the last is a relaxed and pleasant one.

Get it right from the off and start to build a relationship so that your prospects want to give you their business regardless of how price competitive you are.