Danielle Putnam
Contributing Writer
President, The New Flat Rate

Create your future from your future, not your past.

A few months ago, I traveled with my husband and in-laws to Tallahassee. Not growing up a football fan, I often wonder how I ended up marrying a Florida State fanatic. Naturally, we had traveled down for the game. Fortunately to save costs, I have a cousin who shares her home with us on each trip. Friday night as we arrived, we instantly knew the heater wasn’t working due to the 57 degrees inside the house. Kay (my cousin) called her HVAC repair man who quickly came to the rescue.

The HVAC tech didn’t know who I was, nor that I knew anything about his industry nor pricing. As he boasted about being the cheapest in town I couldn’t help but to think, “But you don’t have to be!”

After the diagnosis, he proclaimed the Oil Furnace had air in the lines which he cleared out and handed Kay a bill for $112. What a deal and on a Friday night too!

Then Kay asked a golden question, “At my other house, the thermostat often blinks on and off, what’s wrong?” To which the tech responded with a very lengthy 15 minutes of over-educating fluff that was well over everyone in the rooms head. She responded with, “Ok, well thanks for coming tonight”, as he left.

The scene played and re-played in my head over the next 24 hours until the light bulb came on with a click! We always say, “Don’t spill your candy” and this tech had not only spilled his candy, he also lost a sale. Instead of responding with his ego (which we are ALL guilty of doing, especially me), he should have simply responded with, “Oh my gosh, Kay I am so sorry you’re being so inconvenienced. What day next week could I come by and take a look at that problem for you?” Magically, don’t you agree that if he would have responded like this instead of with an over the top novel, he would have booked another service call?

Cheers to learning as we go and thankfulness for opportunities to do better next time!