ACtion Magazine - July 2012 - (Page 12)

Under the Southern Cross Oh, the joy of firing a customer Ken Newton, CEO. VASA T he VASA chiefs were so inspired by a recent essay on leading by example, written by MACS Chairman Andy Fiffick, not only did we borrow (read plagiarize) it to share with our members, but we’ve taken it a whole step further. I’m now giving lessons in how to fire customers. Yes, fire them, show them the door and ‘take your clapped-out heap of a car with you.’ Andy’s plea to workshop owners was about the aftermarket air conditioning industry putting in place some simple strategies to counter the apparent negative image and poor level of public trust. There are many ways to win public confidence, Andy explained, and then listed a number of great ideas. This is all well and good, and VASA has been telling our people the same thing for some years. But my Won “Best use of Technology in a New Product” at the 2012 MACS show! TION C2_MACSW_Ad3GS.indd 1 12 AC Reader Reply No.29 • July/August 2012 contention is that as a workshop smartens itself up, puts on a bold and professional new public face, it follows that it may very well attract a better class of customer. Nobody with real money wants to spend it in a broken down back-street workshop run by grubs, but put on a coat of paint, act professionally, upgrade skills through training and suddenly you are starting to look like a real alternative to the dealership down the road. This is all fine and dandy, say many of our members, but now we really need to get rid of the time wasters, the tyre kickers and the half-smart rev-heads who want everything on the cheap, or worse still, buy cheap or second hand parts and bring them in for the workshop to fit. So conditioned are workshops to accepting anything that comes in the door “because we need the money”, that it’s easy to forget the low profitability, the time wasting, the frustration and the poor self esteem which always accompanies these customers. Most retail business people have, at some stage, cracked the joke ‘If it were not for customers, running this business would be a breeze’. Customers can indeed be a pain, but you can do something about those problem customers – fire them. It’s one of the most satisfying things you can do. There were many times in my own public relations business that I had to make a snap decision about whether I was really desperate enough, financially, to do business with people who I instinctively knew would try to shaft me, and make demands which ultimately would only cost me money, not make me money. Many times the potential client would say, ‘But you’re so expensive’. My stock reply was, ‘Compared to what?’ I offered and charged for professional services that delivered successful outcomes. I never gave in, never buckled on price, and was not interested in any competitive quote —I made sure my client understood that. Take it or leave it (said convincingly and with due deference). There are enough good customers out there and they are looking for the good workshops. But a concerted PR effort is needed to explain their point of difference, and why they are good at what they do. Sometimes the only reason people question price is that they really don’t understand the degree of skill required to solve their problem. Explain it well, and the price is no longer a talking point. ❆ 2/8/12 10:30 AM http://www.C2camera.com http://www.C2camera.com http://www.macsw.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=ACtion_Reader_Reply&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8247

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - July 2012

ACtion Magazine - July 2012
Contents
Outlook
Expansion Valve
Technically RELAY-ted
Under the Southern Cross
Leonard’s Law
Cooling Corner
Virtual View
News & Updates
KME: Where Custom Is the Norm
Five-Alarm Maintenance
ACtion Magazine Staff Win IAMC Awards
Association News
Quick Check
New Products & Services
Last Watch

ACtion Magazine - July 2012