I made three trips to a local service provider today. First, I checked their website for their hours. They had a beautiful, informative website. But no hours anywhere I could find. I know of other service providers in their category who open early, so after dropping my son off at school at 7:20am, I headed over.
They weren’t there.
No hours posted anywhere. There was a sign on the door saying they would be back at 8:00am, but I couldn’t make it back this morning. I swung by at 1:00pm while running other errands.
They weren’t there.
The sign on the door now said they would be back at 2:15pm. It didn’t say how long they would be there. Fortunately, my schedule for the afternoon was more flexible. I got there at 2:15pm, ran in, got what I needed, and was out the door in just over a minute.
Three trips for a 78-second transaction. A lot of wasted gas. A lot of frustration. No hours on the website. No hours on the door. Not a happy camper.
If you can’t get the simple things right, your customers will wonder what else you can’t do right.
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com
PS I understand certain service providers will close their offices for lunch. I’m okay with that – as long as I know it is going to happen. That’s why you need to post hours on your door and website.
Retailers take note. Don’t assume customers know what days and times you’ll be open. Make sure you have it on your website, on your Facebook site, on Google, and on your door. I have a twenty year history with this service provider, but I have no room in my brain for memorizing their quirky hours.
I used to work in a pizza place, and our manager always stressed that the bathrooms had to be kept spotless. Her thought was “If we can’t keep the places they can see clean, what do you think they will think we do with the places they can’t see?” It makes a lot of sense.
Exactly!