How to lose a new customer

I just experienced a frustrating example, of someone needlessly over promising regarding the service they provide. It was a great example of how to lose a new customer.

Here’s what happened

My wife’s car needed a service, so I decided to try a new garage. The guys at the new garage were helpful and friendly. They quoted me a price to do the work, which seemed too good to be true. And of course, it was.

They did everything for the agreed fee, but took four hours instead of the one hour they quoted. Because they said it would take an hour, my wife didn’t bother to arrange any transport. So, she was stuck in town for four hours. In the rain.

Here’s the thing: Had the guys quoted their fee and said that it would take a whole morning, we’d have been fine. We would still have used them, but arranged transport. Instead, they over promised. They promised to match the level of service offered by our former garage, when they couldn’t come close. So, our first customer experience with them was also our last, as they lost our trust.

It wasn’t the price

Notice, the price was not the key factor here. It was the promise they failed to deliver on — their assurance that they would match the one hour service we were used to. Their price for the four hour service was very reasonable. They had no need to fake it.

I know that no one intelligent enough to read my work would ever be stupid enough to over promise in that way. However, there’s still a valuable lesson here.

It’s about baking marketing into your business! This means creating so much value, that your product or service is irresistible… without any need to add lofty promises or claims

PS — You should find this useful: How to bake marketing into your business.