So a while back I was looking for a lawncare service and decided to go with TruGreen. The representative was very friendly and I was able to negotiate a fair deal for the yard plus a free lime treatment and even a few extra weed treatments. For the first few months things went great, then our original rep. left and someone else took over the account. From that point on things kind of went downhill. The following describes exactly what you need to do to ensure you lose your customers.
First, I’m a very loyal customer. In fact, I’m one of the kinds of customer’s companies work very hard to keep, and if they’re smart, won’t want to upset. I’m also a very direct person, and I have no problem telling someone exactly how I feel, and firing them if necessary. So one day I notice that I’ve got weeds growing everywhere and call TruGreen for a re-treatment and they agreed to send someone out…a few days later there’s a note on my door that the yard has been re-treated and a few days after that all the weeds are still there. Before I could call TruGreen again, they call me first. A “courtesy call” is what the gentleman referred to it as. He humbly apologizes and then asks me if I want a lime treatment.
So it wasn’t really a call to make sure I was satisfied…it was a sales call…dirty scumbags. This was just like “How are you?” When someone asks you this, they really don’t care how you are, they’re just being nice. Well I don’t want this guy to pretend to be nice…I’m paying him, he should really WANT to make sure I am satisfied. Here’s the real kicker, remember earlier when I said I negotiated a free lime treatment? Well that’s what the guy is talking about…except now it’s not free.
So I tell the guy about the free lime treatment, and of course he says he doesn’t know anything about that:
Me: “Wait a second, I was supposed to get that for free.”
TruGreen: “I don’t know anything about that…would you still like it?”
Me: “Of course”
TruGreen: “Great!! That’ll be $49.00.”
Me: “But I was supposed to get for free.”
TruGreen: “I don’t know anything about that…would you still like it?”
Me: “Of course!”
TruGreen: “Great!! That’ll be $49.00.”
Me: “…….”
So that’s kind of how things went. Eventually I got the guy to offer to have the manager call me and believe it or not later that night the manager did. Now before I went back to school I was an electronics store manager and I learned a lot there about customer service. One of the rules I learned was never insult the customer or imply the customer has made a mistake. If you do, the educated ones will see right through it and you’ll be left serving the morons. Therefore one of the things you never ever say is, “I apologize for the confusion.” This phrase implies that somehow, something has occurred which completely baffled your customer…as a result, they are now confused. So how do you respond? Easy, the manager who takes the ‘I apologize for the confusion approach’ will always say that before spouting off some policy for why they can’t do something. So the key here is to flip things around on them.
TruGreen manager: “I apologize for the confusion, but…”
Me: “What confusion?”
TruGreen manager: “Well…uhhh, I uhhh, I thought you were under the impression we had promised you something.”
Me: “You did…what’s confusing about that?”
TruGreen manager: “Well, nothing?”
Me: “So what are you confused about? “
TruGreen manager: “I don’t know.”
And that’s more-or-less how the conversation went. I re-explained about the free lime treatment and that I was shocked it hadn’t already been done, and I was under the impression it had actually been performed weeks or months ago. And then the manager made the one mistake you just don’t make to an educated customer. He said, “Well sir, I can’t just give somebody a free treatment just because they want one.” Uh oh!!! Because here’s what I heard, “Hey pal, you’re a damn liar and I ain’t giving you $%&!”
I decided I’ll make things easy for the manager at this point.
Me: “Look, here’s the deal. I’ve spent way too much time on this phone call already so I need you to either give me the lime treatment at no charge or cancel my contract.”
TruGreen manager: “Well sir I’ll have to get in touch with the district manager…
Me: “No, you and I are going to get this resolved now. Agree to the lime treatment, or I cancel. Last chance.
TruGreen manager: “Well I can call the district manager tomorrow…”
Me: “Cancel my contract immediately.”
TruGreen manager: “Okay.” <click>
And that was it. Of course he never cancelled my contract. Those bastards snuck in one more treatment to I had to call corporate to cancel. And let me tell you, getting corporate’s phone number was no easy task. Their toll-free number just rings to your local office, and I didn’t trust them anymore. So in the end I cancelled and a few days later corporate calls me, apologizes, tells me there’s going to be some management changes (no surprise there) and offers to give me a free treatment. Go figure. I politely declined and last night TruGreen (local office this time) calls me again. This time the guys all friendly chatting with me about the weather before springing his trap telling me he’s all set to schedule me for my first spring treatment. I quickly explain the story above and conclude by saying I may do business with TruGreen in the future but not right now. The guy responds by feigning stupidity saying he, “doesn’t understand.” Oh well, clearly there’s a lot TruGreen doesn’t understand about how NOT to piss-off your customers.
-Marco Ken
