What do Memorial Day weekend, graduation week, and Chicago Black Hawks hockey all have in common? For Digital Home Technologies (www.adigitalhome.com) president John Goldenne, the answer is: emergency service calls.
Goldenne, a Palatine, Illinois-based integrator friend of mine, said that he had planned for two weeks to spend his holiday weekend with family and landscaping both his home and office. But, before his plans could get into full swing early Friday afternoon, the office phone rang. It was 2pm, and the boss had already sent his staff home for the three-day weekend and had begun his office landscape projects. “I came inside about every hour to check phones,” he recalled.
For the rest of the story, I’m posting what John wrote to me on over the weekend. It just goes to show that if you manage your time well, it is possible to have your weekend, while keeping clients happy and adding a new one or two to the mix. Here’s John’s blow by blow about Customers A, B, and C:
Customer A: Called in and begged for help to get his laptop iTunes working over his house and outside sound system for his son’s graduation party of over 100 people. I tried to repair via phone and decided this was a valuable customer (I never met the husband and wanted the opportunity) and they needed help. I drove to their home and repaired it within one hour. The husband informed me that he loved the system and would like to expand on additional audio and to meet up next week. (plus one!)
Customer B: Left three messages on my phone while I was with Customer A. “Help!! Comcast messed up my video switching and the Blacks Hawks are playing in the Stanley Cup.” He demanded that this be fixed by Saturday’s game. I returned the call and said I would stop by on Saturday morning, while still in my landscaping attire (dirt and all). This high-profile client made two trips to the Comcast outlet for new HD receivers, and I repaired it in two hours. While he was at Comcast, his wife pulled me aside and stated that never had anyone showed up on a holiday weekend, and that they were forever grateful. She also referred me to a friend who has a large home under construction. (plus two!).
Customer C: Emailed while I was at Customer A. This new customer, who was referred by neighbor, was having a large Memorial Day barbeque, and their house system was not functioning. They tried to call their previous A/V contractor, but he would not return their calls. I told them that since I was already doing repairs, I would stop by on Saturday and hopefully they didn’t mind that I was in my gardening attire. I stopped by their very large home and was told that they had 18 zones of audio and were hit by lightning last week. I spent one hour troubleshooting and made suggestions. Both the husband and wife confirmed that they no longer wanted to work with their previous installer and that they would like us to handle the repair and reprogramming of the house system. Oh, and by the way, they are opening another office and wondered if I would be interested in providing their audio system for this. (plus three and four!).
So in short, what I learned this weekend is
• Answer your phone
• Reply to your email
• Deal with complaints
• Take the extra step…
…because you never know what the outcome might be.
