There I was, enjoying my Sunday morning coffee on the couch in my Charlotte, NC home. This doesn’t happen often. With 3 kids, there is usually much to do. But on this morning, they were all at a sleepover, so I had some time off. What to do? I decided to check up on the football preview shows.
I grab the universal remote and hit the power button. No response. Nothing clicked. No big deal, hit it again. Nothing. Must be a simple fix. I grabbed my computer to do some quick research. Except I can’t get online. I look at the modem–it’s offline. Nothing is working! I love technology, but sometimes when it doesn’t work, it can be a royal pain….
At least my phone still works, so I send an email to “my technology guy,” Jack Oxendine, at RFP Technologies.
Jack responds right away. He’s busy, but he listens to my tale of technological woe, and the next day he stops by, since he’s in my neighborhood anyway. It is a quick fix, for him. In a couple of minutes, he diagnoses the problem, corrects all errors and then some, and goes on his way. He doesn’t even charge me.
Turns out, the problem was originally created by a DirecTV installer.
This is why Jack is “my guy.” He fixes problems that others create. He does great work. And he’s a nice guy. Respectful.
And he doesn’t nickel-and-dime me, either. I’m not saying service people shouldn’t charge for their work, and Jack normally does charge. His rates are reasonable; they’re not discount. You get what you pay for, and I’m happy to pay for Jack’s talent. But this was a quick little job, he was in my neighborhood anyway, and he cut me a break. I appreciate that. It shows me that doing good work is more important to him than a small amount of money.
And because Jack is my technology guy, when I do have a big job, he’s the one I call. He’s sold me big projects before, and he probably will again. He knows that. He knows this one service call doesn’t exist in isolation.
And that’s really why I’m telling you all this—because there are so many people who don’t work like that. I’ve been oversold by technology people so many times. It’s like they’re thinking “this could be our only chance to get money out of this guy, so we’d better get as much as we can.” And you know what? That becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy because I never hire those people again. They don’t do good work.
I can’t remember, for sure, but that DirecTV installer was probably doing this kind of thing, giving sloppy service because of an assumption that there’d never be any more business from me (and he was not vested to my happiness). But I have a feeling that even if Jack was working for someone just once, he’d still do his best. He cares about his work—and that’s why he gets more of it.
So, do you want to be like that installer, or do you want to be like Jack, the Charlotte technology guy?
In whatever business you’re in, if you care enough about your work and your clients to do the little things right, people will remember that. Little things lead to big things—but even if sometimes they don’t, well, at least you have done your customers and prospects right.