The power of happy customers - almost there

In these troubled times all businesses will be looking for the edge which ensures they win the sale and build a loyal customer base.

Often it doesn't take much but it starts with some lateral thinking which results in doing things differently.

We have a very old house with a slate roof. Any old house needs continuous maintenance. For a while now we have been vaguely aware that there was a leak in the roof which was causing increasing damp in one of the walls.

Some months ago we had our usual roofing team out to do routine maintenance and replace some cracked slates. They scampered all over the roof and (apparently) replaced a number of slates. But after they had gone the leakage problem appeared to be even worse. Yet there was no comment from them about any problems remaining with the roof.

I eventually called them back to focus on the specific problem. They clamoured up a ladder (I should point out that out double storey house has very high ceilings (4m) and a very raked roof, so it is a long way off the ground to the apex of the roof) and had a look at the valley and gutter which I suspected was the problem.

They willingly agreed the whole gutter in question looked like a complete mess (why hadn't they pointed this out on the last maintenance visit?) and would need replacing.

Their astronomical quote for the repair was more than $8,000!!!

We sat on it.

After a few more rain storms when we had water pouring down the chimney and paint bubbling off the walls, we realised we had no choice but to get it fixed. Fortuitously another roofing company, who claimed to specialise in slate roofs - no doubt why they targeted us -chose that time to drop a card in our letterbox.

I immediately called them up and made an appointment to get a quote. Their owner turned up precisely on time for the agreed quotation inspection - always a good sign!

He popped up a ladder and immediately began throwing down comments like 'My god, what a dog's breakfast; this was done by some dodgy brothers with whatever they had in the back of their ute' and so on.

This is smart. He was placing himself firmly on my side and building empathy. I was already warming to him. But the extent of his musings about the nasty sight he found on my roof was convincing me it could be a far bigger problem than $8,000 would fix.

He descended and promised to get a written quote to me within the week.

Before the week was out the quote arrived - $1,800 was his estimate. Thinking there must be some error, I phoned him and had a chat about the whole situation. He knowledgeably discussed the problem and the proposed solution and confirmed the quote was correct. However it didn't include necessary scaffolding. I asked him for an estimate of that and his response was 'around $500'.

I accepted the quote and asked him to organise the scaffolding. He promised to call to let me know when he could do the job.

Sure enough, a week or so later I received the call to schedule the time to do the job. We agreed the day and I was told he would be there between 7 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. on the appointed day.

At 7.25 a.m. on the day he arrived at exactly the same time as the truck carrying the necessary scaffolding. He and his offsider were polite and extremely efficient. They got on with the job and I watched as bits of twisted metal gutter were dragged off the roof and new slates and a new box gutter was installed.

By the end of the day the job was done. Two days later I received the invoice. As agreed it was the $1,800 quoted with an additional $150 for the scaffolding. I was overjoyed that the scaffolding was less than half his estimate.

As I sit here typing this the rain is pounding down but no water is cascading down the inside of my chimney and no new bubbles of paint are appearing on the wall.

This is a great story of a tradesman who did everything right in a world where most do everything wrong- he did everything he said he was going to do; he was knowledgeable, empathetic and polite; he under promised and over delivered; he was reasonably priced; he got the job done. I happily paid his invoice the day I received it in the mail.

Building a base of happy customers is simple really - just delight them.

But even my roofer from heaven could have gone a step further.

My roof is more than 8m off the ground. I'm not going to climb up there. He could have taken before and after photos of the job and attached them to the invoice as a validation of the work he undertook. This would have made me feel even more comfortable that a great job was done. He could also have included a report with his invoice about a suggested maintenance program for my roof - he could even have sought to book in a maintenance visit. It never hurts to ask for more custom. Perhaps he might have followed up with a call in a few weeks time to thank me for my prompt payment and ask whether I am still happy with the job. He could use that same call to ask for some referrals.

Making sure you do what you say you are going to do is a fundamental for all successful businesses; under promising and over delivering is even better (and all deserved kudos to my new found roofer for getting the fundamentals right). But the highest growth businesses will go even further and find ways to differentiate themselves and add value to their customers. Happy customers will always reward the businesses that delight them with more and more custom.