Killing a Recession With Service

The word “recession” has the business world all atwitter today as the financial community awaits word from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on whether he plans to lower interest rates.

That coupled with the ongoing fallout from the subprime market collapse, the steep rise in consumer prices over the past year – roughly about four percent – and the growing number of layoffs by companies that can no longer sustain big payrolls, and customers will likely shy away from buying any big ticket items this year.
So how do businesses draw people in their doors?

The answer is quite simple. Service.

A business has to become important to the lives of the people it serves, or in times of economic downturn, they will turn away figuring they can do without you. A lot of businesses just have not gotten that message yet. For about a decade I took care of my mother who was ill. That also meant taking care of her very large house. So I had to surround myself with people who would provide me with consistent quality service. I had to appreciate them so much that I would have no problem writing a check.

Case in point. I awoke at 1 a.m., one night and found a pipe in an upstairs bathroom had broken as was spewing water everywhere. It had gone on long enough that the water had seeped into the downstairs ceiling knocking out a light and warping the drywall. I quickly picked up the phone book and tried to find a plumber with 24-hour service. The water had to be stopped, pipe repaired, drywall shored up and light fixture replaced.

After six calls that yielded only answering services that promised someone would get back tome in a day or two, I found a small listing for a company which I thought at the time had a hokey name – H20 Plumbing. I dialed the number and got an answer from a sleepy voice. I explained my problem and he asked my addressed and promised he was on his way. “Great,” I said, hanging up and then realizing this was going to be a very expensive night.

Sure as can be, he arrived 20 minutes later in a beat up white pickup truck, in uniform and with tools in hand. He made the necessary repairs in less than an hour and identified my problem – a defective type of piping that was installed in all my bathrooms – and offered to do the repairs right then. I declined the additional work at that moment but told him I would have him come back and do it at a later time. Really, I wanted to know if I was going to have to fork over $500 for his nighttime emergency response.

The plumber, who told me he was the company owner, gave me the bill and I nearly swallowed by tongue. $114.

Okay, I got this guy out of bed in the middle of the night to fix a broken pipe, offered to do extra work and charged me likely what it would have cost if he’d come at 9 in the morning. I arranged to have him come back the next day and do the preventative repairs on the other bathrooms. I found that he and one other guy were the only workers in this little company. His name went into my little black book and he has been my plumber ever since. That was five years ago.

Last week, I saw a shiny white fleet truck rolling down the street in my neighborhood. On the side, it read “H20 Plumbing.” He was obviously doing very well. I smiled. It’s all about the service, I thought.

It also reminded me about a line from the now defunct program, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” “In the episode “The Cold Open,” show producer Danny Tripp introduces the new head writer to the program’s beleagured writing staff. “Matt only writes for the people he knows. Become one of the people he knows.”

That applies here as well. Become one of the people they know.


Kathy A. Gambrell
Founder
ChesapeakeBayBathandBody.com