This summer, I have been doing some home and mountain cabin renovation.  I received bids from over 25 different companies offering their products, field installation and repair services, and have actually done business with 9 of the vendors.  Here are some of my recent encounters in trying to buy new products and services in a down economy:
 
No matter how accomplished or well-run your service department is, the customer (the one who pays the bills) deals much more with your lower paid administrative and field service people than your managers, supervisors or owner. Your company’s closest interface with the customer is usually with the field infantry of your company.  Subsequently, the majority of your clients judge your company’s worthiness by the competence, friendliness and helpfulness displayed by your worker bee employees.
 
With these thoughts in mind, here are a few tips based on the obstacles I encountered when selecting, hiring and paying companies.
 
1. Do not waste your money advertising for new business if there is no one to answer your telephone or return emails.  Automation may be cost effective, but leaving a message on voice mail or email to which no one responds does not instill the confidence of a new or returning customer.  One vendor told me, “I don’t have time to deal with shoppers. I am only interested in buyers. I never return a call until I receive 2 follow-up messages.”
 
2. People still use the yellow pages, magazines, and newspapers to find a new vendor.  A full page color ad to attract business is unnecessary, but a small company yellow page listing is still worth considering.   Or, even better, an ongoing, no-cost listing on craigslist.com and eBay.  The next time you are walking through your office and see an employee using their cell phone or Internet for personal use, simply assign them the task of listing items on eBay or Craigslist. 
 
3. GPS and map books still have a place in our work.  Repeated calls to a customer asking for directions do not put your best foot forward.  One repair tech called me a total of 6 times (for an initial service call and two subsequent parts re-calls) for directions.  It became apparent to me that his memory and directional driving skills were on par with his trouble-shooting skills. 
 
4. I received 3 collection calls, all before 7am in the morning, from a company that never left nor sent me an invoice for the completed work.  When I finally got hold of the owner of the company, he vented a great deal about his frustration with all his past due customers.  I suggested, “If you send out invoices, you will have a better chance of getting paid.”

He admitted he had never sent a bill and apologized. He then said he would lower my bill by $25, which I found unnecessary. All too often businesses think the key to a happy customer is to offer a discount. It has been over 3 months since the electrical work was successfully completed. I still have not received an invoice. Nor have I paid this vendor.

5. One business, from whom I decided to buy a $5,000 air conditioning and heating system, promptly returned my initial telephone enquiry. A deal was verbally agreed upon and an installation date was set up for 3 weeks after our discussion for the ‘full day installation’ and would include a ‘team of installers.’ I cautioned the company owner/salesman who handled the quote that other companies who had bid had deemed the installation location ‘a bit tricky’. The owner declined my suggestion of surveying the sight by saying, “I’ve been doing this for 25 years. We can put these units anywhere.” 

At 8:30am on the appointed day, I received a phone call from the owner Mick. They would be at my house in 10 minutes. True to his word, 3 large trucks stopped at the end of my private road with no room to turn around. Stopping in the middle of the street, 4 men piled out of the trucks to take a look at the situation. 30 minutes later it was decided they needed more manpower to lift the compressor over my fence and would return next week. In the meantime they unloaded 4 large boxes containing my new equipment. The owner asked me, “Is it going to rain this week? This stuff can’t get wet,” for which I offered a waterproof trap to place over the boxes. A simple sight survey, less than a mile from the contractor’s place of business, would have saved at least 8 hours of labor.

6. I made arrangements for a small exterior painting job on my mountain cabin. On the appointed day no one showed up.  I forgot all about this vendor.  A week later, without any further contact, I arrived at my cabin to find the painters scrapping and sanding.
 
7. An electrician I have used 3 times has not yet given me a bill for work done over the past 3 months. He had purchased needed parts and worked at least 10 hours on multiple projects. After not seeing or hearing from him for 9 days, he called to complain that the gate to my property was locked when he unexpectedly showed up to continue his work.

8. Currently I have one uncashed check for $3500 which was handed to the installing tech after completion of their work over 45 days ago. Another check for $500, mailed to the vendor, was not cashed for 33 days. I have two completed jobs, costing over $1100 that have not yet been invoiced.

The moral of my story: In each case, profitability was lessened through simple lack of following appropriate business practices. Profitable field service requires a chain of actions, all being accomplished in an appropriate sequence. If any one element of the sequence is not completed correctly, the profitability of the entire process is weakened.

Ronelle Ingram, author of Service With A Smile, also teaches service seminars. She can be reached at ronellei@msn.com