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My Kingdom for a Snow-Plow Company
19 Nov, 2008 By: Frank H. Andorka Jr.For those of you who follow this column, you might remember that it snows regularly in Cleveland, and I find myself struggling to engage someone to plow my driveway competently.
(Before the e-mail starts about what a wuss I am for not shoveling my own driveway, I have arthritis in just about every joint of my body, which would be incredibly painful for me. Could I gut it out? Yes, but I'm old enough now that I can afford to choose less painful alternatives.)
I thought I'd finally found someone last year who did a decent job of taking care of the problem — until the last plow of the year. The plow arrived, entered my driveway, pushed the snow to the back yard and then backed out to give it another push.
That's when I saw the driver jump out of his truck and run over to me.
"I just ripped the spigot off the side of your house," he said breathlessly. "There's water gushing out of it."
After shutting off the water, I called the company to demand that someone come out to survey the damage and tell me how they were going to take care of a problem they created.
After two weeks and repeated phone calls with no response, other far more important life concerns forced me to drop the matter. Clearly, however, I wouldn't forget the company's name or my vow never to use them again.
This fall, I received a call from said company asking me if I was ready to renew my contract. I called them back and said, "No, I won't be renewing for this year."
To my great surprise, they didn't even ask me why. They just took me off the plow list and said, "Thank you for letting us know."
It's moments like that that I despair for the future of customer service in this country. So this doesn't happen to you, make sure you have an adequate cancellation plan in place that makes it difficult for your customers to cancel. After all, the costs of earning a new customer far outweigh the costs of keeping an old one.
(For an example of how to do this, click here to download a cancellation flow chart from Lloyd Smigel's excellent Bug People to Business People book.)
For the record, I've signed up with another company but I fear it won't go well. As usual, it will be a hope and a prayer, so keep me in your thoughts.
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