How Returning a Phone Call Turned into $8,000.00

Recently, my sweetie, Eric, decided that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with our yard maintenance (like mowing, weed whacking, edging etc.).  Additionally, we had some pretty overgrown, ugly bushes in front of the house that we had been wanting to get rid of.  So, he asked me to make some calls to local companies to get some bids on landscaping and regular lawn maintenance. 

I found 2 companies in the local phone book who advertised that they did both and called both of them.  Only one company returned my call.  We went to meet with Mark Frey, owner of Frey’s Nursery and Landscaping, and were really impressed with his proposal for landscaping and how well he offered to take care of the lawn.  Eric had long admired the yard that Mark’s company maintained across the street from us, so we had solid evidence of the quality of service we’d be getting. So, Eric wrote Mark a check for the deposit on the landscaping and signed a year’s contract for yard maintenance (total cost — $5,040.00).

Frey’s did an amazing landscaping job, so then Eric starting itching for a patio.  He’d (Eric) recently bought a grill and had finally put it together and used it over Labor Day weekend, so now he wanted a place for grilling. We’d asked Mark if he also did patios, and he did, so last Friday we met with him again about a patio design.  We still have to finalize the design, but Mark took care of our drainage challenges where we want to put the patio, and Eric wrote him another check for a deposit on the patio work (total estimated cost — $2500).

So, because Mark chose to return a potential customer’s phone call (my call), he has sold almost $8,000.00 worth of products and services to us.  See how much poor  customer service can cost you?  Wonder how much business that other company has lost…they still haven’t returned my phone call..:)