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by James Robertson.
Original Post: The joy of good service
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
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Good service is the ultimate in good marketing - it leads to good word of mouth and return business. I've had that for a long time now from a local mechanic - Wheeler's Auto Service in Jessup Maryland. I think we were referred there by word of mouth in the first place, and we've done that kind of referral since. These guys are honest - they always give me the straight scoop, and - when they find things that might need repair - they tell me how critical it is. For instance, I just had gear shift problem repaired, and they found a potential issue with the bearings in the rear wheels. When I told them that I drive 1000 or so miles a year, they told me that I could just let that go for awhile, and get it dealt with later. When they looked at our minivan's erroneous gas tank readings, they warned us that a full fix could get quite pricey, and it might be a lot simpler to just track the mileage on the trip odometer. This is why I keep going back there for service
I had another good experience last week. We had ordered pizzas from Pizzeria Uno in Ellicott City. We ordered from there because my wife happened to be shopping there, and it would be easy for her to pick it up on the way home. When she got here, we found out that they had reversed the order - getting the ingredients backwards. We were short on time (my daughter had events that evening, and my car was in the shop) - I called to complain, and they said that they'd replace both pizzas and refund my money. It was out of my way to go back, but heck - they did the right thing. I grabbed a carry-out menu on my way out, because I'm sure I'll order from there again.
By not trying to extract the maximum dollar for any particular visit, these places have ensured that they'll get repeat business from me - and positive word of mouth. There are plenty of places that are more interested in maximizing the return on each individual transaction, without any thought to future business. Which model works better in the long haul?
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