Oct 26, 2021

Cancun, MEXICO – “Good-Bye Winter!”

I am writing you from the air enroute to Mexico for a conference of business coaching colleagues. Feels like a lifetime since we’ve left the country for any kind of travel.

Interestingly, the plane is packed.

Seems many western Canadians have had enough of home and feel equally compelled to get out of “Dodge.”

For us, the conference is only the start. We plan on visiting friends and distant relatives in the capital city and explore a few other of Mexico’s gems afterwards.

Then onto Ecuador via Panama to experience two things.

1. A winter without snow for the first time.
2. Living abroad for an extended period and see how easy it will be for me to continue working remotely. Shouldn’t be too difficult since all I need is my computer and Wi-Fi.

Our house in the mountains of Canada is rented now until the end of June, which is longer than we had planned. Got to tell you that packing up a house, plus packing to be away for months was much more hectic than I had anticipated. How do one’s shelves contain so much  stuff?

In the course of our preparations, we discovered that a burner on our stove had gone out. Naturally, we contacted an electrician who services electrical appliances.

Not sure how my wife found him, but she found the guy’s number and called. He replied, OK, I can do the job. Text me the information, house address etc.

My wife replied, look, I’m talking with you now, can’t you just write it down? I’m calling  from my landline.

Sorry no, need the text.

So, she hangs up, enters the number into her phone and texts the information.

Several days later and our departure date looming, she comes to me and say, look, I texted this guy, no answer, can you call him, here’s the number etc. She was off to some location to do some client work, so since I work from home, this little item became my priority.

I called, left a voicemail, and left it at that.

30 minutes later, I get a call back. From some lady with an Asian accent and a number from the city of Calgary (an hour away). She works for a salon or massage business.

What? I say sorry, must have a wrong number and text my wife. No wonder you didn’t get an answer. You had the completely wrong number. What is the name of the business?

I get a reply, a name. An expletive.

So, I go to good ole Google and type it in.

No Google My Business Page. Not on the first page but buried on page 2. (How did she find this guy I’m thinking?)

Find a number. Completely different from the one my wife had written down. Give it a call.

A guy named Jay answers. Says, yes, he remembers talking to my wife. I tell him what we want, can you come by tomorrow or the next. Yes, no problem. Send me a text!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Ok, I say. I send a text.

Enter the details. Write it all down. Send it off and get back to my work. Forget all about the request.

Around 3:00 that afternoon, I get a text back. Wrong number!

Are you kidding me? I check it against the website. Wrong by one digit. Entered a 6 instead of 5.

Copy my message, resend it all again.

Of course, no reply from the guy that afternoon nor the next day. Finally call the guy. Yes, I got it, I can be there at 3:30. Friday….. We leave Monday.

Here’s the thing from a customer service point of view.

You want customers to get a hold of you. But you don’t have a FREE! Google My Business page and you expect customers to go through the hassle of texting you information when you could easily write it all down. Why make it so difficult?

The funny (not) thing is the exact same scenario happened to my 89-year-old father when he was trying to get a service guy to come to his house, back in August. (Not the texting wrong number part, but the request to text.) And my dad says to the guy; “how do I text you? I’m on my landline?” 😊

You want to be cognizant of the age of your customers. We’re not all super tech savvy. And we expect follow-up. It’s a wonder some of these guys stay in business.

Remember, customer service is a huge part of marketing. Do a good job and you get reviews, referrals, more business. Poor customer service and you’ll be constantly struggling to find new customers.

Have a great week and keep working your plan. There’s still 2 months until the end of the year.

To your health and success

- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert
StreetSmartsMBA.org

P.S. If you’d like more leads, sales, profits and success from your local business, then our Profit Acceleration process is for you. Simply go to StreetSmartsMBA.org to get started – risk-free.