9 Ways to Lose Me As a Customer

Posted on by
6

It’s 2013. In a few years, the things that we are doing now will be old, and there will be newer, more exciting things to make our lives easier. More and more products will be introduced to the retail and technology landscapes, and businesses will continue to evolve (as they have up until now) to meet consumer demand.

As business is always evolving, and so are consumers, there are a few things that companies need to start doing if they want to continue being successful.

Retro black phone with focus on the handset in the foreground.

When we were buying the house, there was nothing more frustrating than dealing with the companies that needed to provide us with the services necessary to make the transaction. Notaries and lawyers were inaccessible. Banks were frustrating to deal with. Most inspection companies were unreasonable.The companies that got my business met a strict criteria.

Here’s what to do if you want to lose my (and my other Gen Y and likely Gen X peers) business:

Don’t Have a Website

‘Cause, you know, who needs a website when you have a phone that you never answer? No problem, you can just verbally describe all of the products you have to me and how much they all cost, and what quantities they come in.

Don’t Post Your Rates Online

Make me take a break from my workday to call you on your phone (which you don’t answer) to get your rates, when your competitors have them posted online

Work Bankers Hours

Nobody has a job these days anyway. No big deal if your customers have to take a vacation day just to get a hold of you, let alone visit your store. 9-6 are great store hours, for those who are retired and/or don’t work.

Be Closed on Sunday

Because it’s still 1926 when every.single.worker in the city takes Sundays off to go to church.

Be Slow

Sure, tell me that you’ll do the home inspection and write up the report and have it to me four days after the inspection. That will make me really happy. Because, you know, there’s no such thing as technology and you have to hand-write it out with a feather and a scroll. Oh, and you work only from 9-6.

Put Me On Hold (For > 30 seconds)

Sure no problem, I’ll wait for 5 minutes on the phone while you finish typing out your email, even though I just “snuck away” from work to phone you because you don’t have a website and you are only open until 6:00 PM so I can’t phone you after work.

Tell Me You Don’t Take Credit Card Payments

I have always dreamed of doing business with a company that makes me go to the bank (if I can find a branch – who goes to banks these days, anyway?) to take out cash to pay them, forgoing my credit card rewards and the ease of payment. Very progressive. Or, better yet, suggest I write a cheque. I have tons of those lying down for all the companies that allow you to pay via cheque these days.

Bother Me After the Transaction

You’ll definitely retain my business in the future if, after you were diligent enough to even get my business to begin with, you begin emailing me, phoning me, and sending messages through carrier pigeon with vouchers and newsletters and the like.

You Refuse to Use Email

I love companies who phone me after I fill out a contact form which requires me to put my phone number down but yet I specify in the body of the email “please email only”. I love when my phone starts lighting up when I’m discussing important collective agreement provisions with my boss. That’s my favorite thing ever.

 

Here are some examples to see what I mean in live action:

The Junk Disposal Bin 

We’d just finished tearing the old shingles off the roof and needed to rent a bin to have the material taken away. I did a quick Google search, and saw that there were quite a few companies in my area that would provide the service. Two of the companies had websites that quoted the prices, which was great. We’d just purchased our house and wanted to get the best deal possible, so I was attempting to do some price comparison.

Two more companies had websites but not prices, and they listed email addresses and phone numbers. I emailed them both and they didn’t respond within 24 hours. Because their hours were so limited, I had to phone them when I snuck away on a quick, unauthorized work break.

One told me that she was just the “secretary”. She told me the price but then transferred me to somebody else to let me know what the availability of the bin we wanted was. That person put me on hold. I was on hold for greater than one minute, so I hung up and called the next company.

The next company told me the prices, but couldn’t bring the bin for a week. So I hung up and went with one of the more expensive ones that had their prices listed on their websites, and the order form right there too.

(There were also a couple of companies that didn’t have websites, but I didn’t even bother with them).

The Asbestos Removal Companies

We negotiated to have the asbestos removed by the previous owners, but we had to arrange for this to happen.

There were some companies that charged double; some companies that didn’t work on weekends (wtf), meaning we’d have to store all of our stuff for a night and stay in a hotel for the weekend because they wouldn’t be out of there in time for us to move in. Some companies even charged for the assessment and quote (yeah, as if I’d ever do that).

The company we finally settled on was reasonable. My biggest beef with them, was that they didn’t allow credit card payments.

The previous owners were transferring funds to us to pay for the removal, and at $5,000, I could have gotten a lot of rewards points on my credit card. They requested payment via cheque, and since I haven’t used cheques since 2009 when I had to pay rent with a cheque, I had to order one cheque and send it via snail mail (meaning I had to buy envelopes and stamps, too). It got lost in the mail, so rinse and repeat by the time they got their money.

I can’t imagine that this is efficient for either the customer or the company, and even though they did a great job and were efficient and really bent over backward for me, I’d never use them again for the fact that they need to start being more competitive with the payment they accept.

 

Being that there are so many choices out there for pretty much anything you’d need and want, I’m of the opinion that it’s so important to be competitive and really work to attract and retain customers. What do companies do that makes YOU walk away?

Should You Have a Higher Emergency Fund if You Own Your Home?

Posted on by
6

One of my goals for 2013 was to add $10,000 to my emergency fund. The goal wasn’t just to have the money sitting in a savings account making 2%. The point of the goal was to build up enough to have a healthy emergency fund and reroute about half of the $10,000 (so.. $5,000) to pay off my car loan.

I have always thought it a bit crazy to have thousands of dollars sitting in a savings account “just in case”, when that money can be invested or put to a better use. Most of us can handle emergencies without needing a bunch of cash sitting there. The exception, of course, is if the emergency is a big one that costs thousands of dollars. Or job loss.

However, since we bought the house, I’ve been a little gun shy in actually re-routing the cash that I had meant for my car loan.

In fact, even though I have a lot of money sitting in my EF, and in other savings accounts, and even though I have a good job and am able to save hundreds of dollars each month, I still get nervous when an unexpected expense crops up.

It may be that we are still new at this home ownership thing and I’m just being overly cautious, but I’m beginning to think I’d be more comfortable with substantially more in my emergency fund than I was when I was renting. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that home owners need much larger emergency funds.

One of the main reasons is that, when you own your home, emergencies for which you are responsible are much more likely to happen.

A pipe could burst, or the furnace could break, or job loss could happen, which holds far greater impact to those who own their homes. Home owners can’t just give notice, move out and live in a less expensive home if something happens to make their mortgage unaffordable. They can’t move in with family members while they get back on their feet, without finding renters or selling their home. Even if you have insurance for many potential disasters, you still have to pay the deductible, and some things aren’t covered.

So, if the rule-of-thumb for the general public is to put aside 3-6 months of living expenses in an emergency fund, how much should home owners have?

Already, there is a lot of advice out there saying that 1% of the home’s value should be set aside for maintenance per year. If you have the personal emergency fund of 3-6 months of living expenses, you should also have a home maintenance fund of 1% of the home’s value. You may not use the maintenance fund each year, so it’s a rolling total. However, a maintenance fund takes care of maintenance, not housing emergencies.

We can handle most emergencies that crop up better than most. Since J is a ticketed carpenter and my dad sells building supplies, we are well equipped to fix a leaky roof or deal with other issues, but I’m still reluctant to transfer money from my emergency fund.

Unless you bought a complete money pit, I don’t think it’s likely that you’ll have that many emergencies crop up, but there are more opportunities for emergencies if you own your home. 

A traditional emergency fund is supposed to cover you in case of job loss or another emergency. But life provides so many  opportunities for emergencies, that it may be smart to have more funds built up just in case if you are a home owner.

 Do you think you need a larger emergency fund as a home owner?

Having Awkward Conversations at Work

Posted on by
8

Enter to win an iPad Mini via The Debt Myth here. 

I remember when I first started working in a professional office environment; I could hardly stand having awkward conversations. Even asking for things was awkward for me. Putting myself out there enough to ask my (very serious, very foreboding) boss whether I could have the last hour of the day off (unpaid!) for a dentist appointment could give me cold sweats.

I’ve become much better at having these conversations, mainly because of my job. 80% of the conversations I have as part of my position are awkward conversations, and I’m constantly having to tell people bad news.

convo

Observe

I had one colleague who had a knack for articulating bad news and having awkward, uncomfortable situations with people in a positive and collected way. I noticed a stark contrast between my awkward, jolted speeches filled with “like”, and “um”, and her smooth, thoughtful way of speaking.

I approached her one day to hopefully glean some of her wisdom, but she had few answers for me. Rarely will a person be able to tell you how they do something well. It’s then up to you to watch them in action.

First, I reflected on these conversations after I’d had them myself. I’d consider what made me feel awkward about it; was it the situation or how the person was taking it? If it was how the person was taking it, were they taking it poorly because I wasn’t delivering the message well? Did I say a word repeatedly? Did I feel that I got the message across? Did I ask the questions that would deliver the answers I needed?

After I did this exercise a few times, I set out to observe my colleague when she had these types of conversations. How did her mannerisms and speaking style differ from mine? What did I really like that she did, compared to what I was doing? How could I incorporate this without giving up my own authenticity?

Think

One thing I noticed almost immediately after having gone through this exercise was that when she – and other people I’d observed speaking well – spoke, she didn’t use filler words. If she got to a point in the conversation when she’d lose her words, or need to come up with an answer or a though on the spot, she didn’t try to fill silences. She just thought.
This sounds intuitive, but it’s not used as often as you might think. Many of us feel the need to fill those silences with words, whether or not they are contributing to the conversation. The words “just”, “like”, and “um/uh/hmm” do not contribute to the conversation. They are fillers. It’s difficult, but try to cut these out by filling those moments with silence and thought. This will also help you say what you want to say better; nobody can think properly when they are talking.

Rehearse

Going into a conversation that you believe to be difficult unprepared can be detrimental. You don’t have to sound rehearsed, but reviewing what you need to say and what the purpose of the conversation is before you go into it will make it go much more smoothly. Consider what action you hope to get from the conversation; how you want to sound, what questions you want to ask, and what the relationship between yourself and the other person is like. You also should consider their personality and how they will react to different ways of delivering your message.

You likely won’t sound rehearsed anyway, because conversations can go any number of ways depend on the reaction of the other party, however, running through it a few times as if you were speaking to the person will really help.

Wait

If you feel the need to have a conversation in the heat of a moment, try to remove yourself from the situation and come back to it the next day. Even if the conversation is one that you must have, it will go over more smoothly when you’ve cooled down a bit and emotions aren’t running high on the other individual’s part, as well.

 

Being successful in these types of situations can be a hit or miss. As you continue to do them, you’ll get more comfortable with them and they’ll come easier.