Three Times Shy

Recently I experience (for the third time) a bad experience from a service professional. I guess I should have learned by the second time to not go back for more. I think the excuse was that I just didn’t have time to find someone else to go to. After leaving the shop I realized that the service I received was faulty to a point that I couldn’t really been seen in public, not with professional look anyways. I called the shop owner and expressed my concern. She told me to come back to the shop and she would fix the problem. This is great and appreciated that she would be willing to fix the mess she made, but I was already half way across the city. In my opinion she should have offered to come to my location to fix the problem. I ended up trying to salvage the mess once I got home, so I called back and told her to not bother with my rescheduled appointment, knowing that this was the final straw.

Being a business owner myself, to me this type of service and offer to fix a bad situation is extremely poor. If that was my business I would have offered to go out of my way to fix it, not to expect my loyal 10 year customer, to have to drive half way across town again to fix the problem. Am I out of wack? Is this something that business owners should do? Or is it not worth the hassle? Is the cost of going out of your way greater than the cost of keeping a client happy?

Sometimes I really question how some people stay in business. Like really?? If others can do it and survive providing half assed service, I should be hugely successful.

So I ask you…do you go out of your way to fix your mistakes or do you leave your customers to suck it up and be more inconvenienced if they want a fix?

Tracy Matthewman
		About the author:
		Tracy Matthewman is the publisher and editor of Women Can Do Anything, an online community and business resouce for business women and female entrepreneurs. She is also a graphic designer, website programmer and Internet marketer.