Several weeks ago I wrote a bit of a rant. It was about a service company that didn’t bother to show up, nor to call. When I re-scheduled, there was a misunderstanding about the window of time and while clearing that up the business owner screamed at me. He screamed and told me I was trying to force his business into a model it couldn’t accomplish because he never knows how long a service call will take.
Well I was angry then and it’s even worse now because I’ve just had the exact opposite experience.
We recently needed a locksmith. One of our locks seemed to have something jammed inside. It wasn’t an emergency as we could still go in and out and could lock the door from the inside. Having read of nightmare experiences with choosing a random locksmith (of both the criminal and nearly criminal variety), I sent a request for a recommendation to our neighborhood listserv.
Before I continue this tale, let me offer a separate shout out to that listserv and those who answered. Never a bad recommendation from you people!
Three quick replies sent me to Pete Gamble of Alert Security. I called and we made an appointment for a few days later with a scheduled start time of 2-2:30. At about 2:20, Pete called, saying he was concerned he’d be five minutes late. FIVE minutes. Turns out he wasn’t but he wanted to be sure that I, the customer, knew he was coming.
Like the business owner from the previous post, Pete is also in the service business and he also likely doesn’t know what he’ll find at each appointment. He may have had to call me to say he’d be 35 minutes late. That may have worked out or we would have rescheduled. Either way this business owner respected my time and my business.
As someone who works alone, Pete is even more likely to be pushed off schedule because he can’t move crews/teams/employees to accommodate the day’s unforeseen events. The subject of my previous column has those options.
Here’s the cherry on top: the job was less of a problem than I’d made it sound, costing me less money than if he’d told me I was right. The problem was inside a lock and, let’s be clear, I would never have known otherwise.
And for sprinkles or extra hot fudge on top of this experience, Pete went around to our other locks and gave them each a shot of lubrication to make sure all would function smoothly (literally).
I happily wrote my check to Pete’s company. Locksmiths aren’t something most people need regularly and I certainly don’t wish to but when I do, there’s absolutely zero question of who deserves my business and my respect.
This post could easily have fallen under Jan Bolick’s Good Business blog because Alert Security is Good Business. Truly savvy spending however is always done at a Good Business! Do you have a service provider who’s done right by you? Let’s share the names of the good ones! Comment below or write to me at Donnabeth@Chapelboro.com.
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