within reason I will do anything and everything that I can to keep a customer or a potential customer happy.
The Customer stated he needed vinyl on his truck 'right now' are we talking he needed a full vehicle wrap or a simple set of dot numbers or simply business name and phone number? could have turned out to be a quick, painless, profitable project and a new loyal client for going above and beyond to help him out of what he felt was an important situation.
In my experience those customers go out of there way to tell everyone how well you treated them...this will probably be one of those who tells everyone how poorly he felt he was treated (right or wrong) it doesn't matter..word of mouth is a powerful advertising/marketing tool that should not be overlooked.
many years ago I had this guy agressively pounding on my locked door on a saturday morning, it was clear that he had seen me in there so I really couldn't ignor him and I answered the door.
he looked like a homeless man, hair was wirey, pointing in every direction, hadnt shaved in days, smelled like...stink., was wearing ripped and stained sweat pants and to top it all off he had on mismatched boat shoes one was white and one was tan...honest to god, I truly thought he was a bum.
reluctantly I let him into my office and he told me that he needed some boat lettering TODAY so that he could get underway, which didn't make much sense to me because in Oregon (where I lived at the time) you simply need contrasting color, painted or vinyl lettering with your registration decal for the year and you are good to go....UNLESS your vessel carrries a very large amount of fuel in which case your boat name is your registration through the coast guard (off the top of my head I can not remember the amount of fuel but I want to say it is over 2500 gallons..but again that is just a guess..it's a LOT of fuel and obviously if you have a vessel that is registered with the coast guard it most likely a rather expensive 'boat').
This one turned out to be worth $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty MILLION dollars !!!!) and could not leave it's berth until it had been lettered.
Over the next 5 years we lettered 3 other yacths for this customer, each bigger and more expensive than the one before. We did all of the signs for his businesses ( he owned privately owned luxury hospital as well as multiple medical clinics and various other ventures), not to mention lettering and wrapping an extremely large collection of company vehicles...
and in all honestly I considered acting like i didnt hear him knocking on the door because I truly believed it was a homeless man and I never enjoy telling them 'NO' and always hand them a couple bucks or walk with them to the nearest restaurant and buy them a sandwich or something...haha...little did I know, I would have missed out on a SUBSTANTIAL amount of income and referrals.
but to finish this story, we did eventually end up firing this client. Everytime he called my office he never said, hello, goodbye (which I can handle) but he lacked any and all attempts at common courtesty. Every time he called or showed up at our facility one of the receptionists would end up in tears and for all of the money in th world i would not allow anyone to treat my staff with complete and total lack of courtesy, everyone was kind to him, accomodating above and beyond to every demand and wish of his (our comapny motto was "service sets us a part" and we truly lived it) but he abused it and treated everyone like they were his servants...I don't care how busy your schedule is you can always end a phone call with a simple "good bye" or "have a nice day" but he'd finish his sentence and hang up the phone...and that was about the kindest he ever was.
it shocked him beyond belief when we fired him and at least monthly for at least a year he tried to place orders with us and was repeatedly reminded that we wished him well and would happily refer him to another shop...he got served a nice helping of humble pie.
Please don't misunderstand me, I don;t recommend this as a normal way of operating a business, I value all of my clients and go out of my way to accomodate them in any way that I possibly can, I can not be successful without them and want to do everything in my power to ensure that they are profitable and successful..but this guy was a special case...a very special case and sometimes it is very empowering, and a great stress release to simply end those relationships, professionally and politely of course.
) I guess my long winded point is, same as most here, I will bust my butt for almost anyone. But if you come in here with the attitude that you're entitled and your time is more important then mine, I'm not going to be very inclined to help you out. Those people just bring a cloud with them that darkens the mood of me and my employees. I'm glad I have this place to come and vent a little to people who for the most part understand.
Wow. I swear some people are off their meds lol
