Another thing I have learned in my 34 years in the A/V usiness: When a prospective client does nothing but bad mouth and complain about my competition - I do better by not taking him on as a client either.

Years ago I used to love it when a person came in bad mouthing my competition - I thought, "Boy, this really gives me a chance to shine; to show what I can do." But I have learned that most often my competitors had blown this customer off either because of his bad attitude, or because they could never satisify him. He had cost them more in time and service calls than the profit he generated. And in a few cases, the customer was just plain incapable of comprehending how to operate his system and the previous dealer just could not afford to give anymore unbillable customer training.

(I have had a few customers that after the initial customer training could operate the system fine - as long as we were there. Then after a few weeks called for a "refresher course" which we did at no charge. But after several months of repeat refresher courses - at some point you have to tell the client you are going to bill him the next time. This assumes that you have designed the system to operate in a logical and easy manner.)

Now days, if a customer comes in complaining about a competitor, I will simply call the competitor and ask what they think of him. They will usually give an honest opinion. If the customer mentioned a specific unresolved problem - I ask my competitor about it. Sometimes the customer may have a legitimate gripe - but many times he was of a type that just could never be satisified.

Having posted several things about customers, I would hasten to say that propably 98% of customers are pleasant to deal with and the job goes in with few problems. But - those 2% of bad experiences sure remain in my memory.

This message was edited by sndtowne on 12/25/02 16:54.15.

Internet shoppers -

A few months back, we had a job that called for a Sony VW-11HT 16:9 ceiling mounted projector. The customer had accepted our proposal and given us a deposit. When the house was finished and we arrived with the projector, screen, and A/V gear, the customer greeted us with a factory sealed Sony VW-11HT he had ordered from an internet company. "I still want everything in your proposal but the projector," he said, "I saved $1,000.00 by ordering it," he proudly announced.

Normally, we don't install what we don't sell. But we were already stuck with the projector we had ordered and the rest of the sale would offset the projector cost until I could use it in another job. Sure, we had his deposit, but Texas law says you can't keep money for product you have not delivered.

Thank goodness the customer was there when my guys opened his VW-11HT box. Something was rattling around inside the projector and they told the customer we could not be responsible for powering it up. He asked us to take care of having it looked into, but we told him this was the responsibility of his dealer.

His "dealer" as it turned out was not an authorized Sony dealer and said the projector must have been damaged in shipping (the box appeared fine). The customer had paid with a check which the internet dealer had cashed so he had no recourse with a credit card company. The customer then sent his projector to a regional Sony service center that found a circuit board was broken in two. Sony claimed this was freight damage and would not cover it under warranty. The freight company said the projector had been delivered over two months earlier and it could not be proved when the damage had occured. The customer got his lawyer involved. Four months and $1800.00 in attorney fees later, Sony agreed to fix the projector.

When we went out to hang it, the customer lamented, "I sure would have been better of to go with you." And so it goes. We hung the projector, and made sure it turned on, but did not do any of the normal set up calibration we perform on projectors purchased from us. I so badly wanted to say, "Now, who really had the best deal?"

I sell my wares as a complete turnkey system, not a "couple of black boxes" as someone else put it. although I do get some customers who try to price match everything on the net or chain store, most of my customers are of the attitude that I sell my expertise and service as well as my products and they consider that invaluable. When I first started my business I discounted everything I quoted in order to get the job and generate word of mouth. This almost always come back to haunt me as the customer I was willing to come down on price with to match "the other guy" always expected me to work for nothing in future deals. On the other hand, on other jobs that were not discounted, the customer always appreciated the end result more. Also when asked to do add-ons and other projects for the same people, they are always willing to pay for my time.

I can see both sides of the coin. I have no problem with people who shop for the best deal. This is of course very smart financially. I will still try to gain business from this customer as best I can. However, this type of business will definitely not keep my business open as a lot of the net prices fall very close to or sometimes below my cost.