Scrooge Fire & Security... Part 2
You can read Part 1 here
The Spirit?of Customers Past...
Suddenly Scrooge was in a beautiful mansion. He saw?a jolly, rotund looking fellow sitting at a huge table groaning with gourmet food and vintage wine bottles. He was surrounded by the smiling faces of his wealthy family - their necks, fingers and wrists sparkling expensively. Expensive artwork adorned the walls. And Eb couldn't help noticing the distinct lack of any PIRs or CCTV cameras.
He felt himself gearing up for a sales pitch about home security. But the wind was taken out of his sails when this high net worth?gentleman?introduced himself as the Spirit?of Customers Past. He started to remind Eb of the way things used to be at Scrooge Fire & Security.
Ten years earlier, Eb was a security engineer who had fallen out with his employer. He hated the way that the company was growing through acquisition. The directors would buy up other smaller family-run security firms with great reputations. The goal was to retain their customer base as well as their most skilled engineers.
Taking on these new customers meant more maintenance and monitoring contracts. But in such volume in a short space of time,?it also put a huge strain on the existing infrastructure.
Yes, they had also taken on the staff of the new companies but they weren’t always the best people and they hadn’t always received the best training. It took a long time for them to get used to the different systems for handling the jobs.
Quality control was becoming a real issue and he hated going to visit customers who did nothing but complain. They didn't like the new company or the level of service they were receiving.?They kept making comparisons to their old supplier. They didn't feel special any more.
Eb's wife got fed up with him moaning and suggested that he start his own business. Surely it couldn’t be that hard?
And she was right! He had set up on his own and started contacting the customers that he had previously served. They were all delighted to follow him to?Scrooge Security.
Things were going swimmingly. New alarm systems, maintenance, monitoring and access control. The enquiries just kept rolling in.
The Spirit of Security Customers Present
There was another flash and Eb was in his office with the next visitor. The Spirit?of Customers Present looked reproachfully at him.
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"It's alright for you!" grumbled Eb. “No one told me that starting your own business meant that you would end up doing lots of jobs that you didn’t know how to do, whilst watching your employees mess up the stuff you know you are great at!"
They also hadn't told him that cash flow would be such a problem. He had to pay suppliers upfront and then wait 30-60 days for the customers to pay. That cash gap was a killer which directly impacted his own salary.
He also had not expected?that every fireman, electrician and contractor would suddenly become an expert at Fire & Security. Or that they could work out of their garages with sub-contractors taking on any overflow. Whilst he had the expenses of a premises and employees.
These small competitors were able to undercut him on price every time - even some of his regulars were fooled. And it was only later that these customers realised the poor quality of the equipment and installation.
That’s why he had gone through the tests to become NSI Gold, BAFE and SSAIB accredited. He wanted to show how trustworthy he was and that home and business owners could buy with confidence.
He had also joined forces with Marley, a guy with an accountancy background, to manage the money, the admin and the people. In theory, this meant that Eb could do the site surveys and project manage the installations.
But it didn't always pan out that way. He didn't have time to catch up with his customers as he had when he was just an engineer.
Bob Cratchitt, the sales manager, was in his office too...
As well as banging on about the shortfalls of the website, Bob had begged to be able to use LinkedIn to locate the business owners who actually needed their services. And to nurture relationships with their existing customers.
But Scrooge and Marley didn't have cash to waste on all that?rubbish. Serious buyers were not using social media to look for fire prevention or intruder protection products. They were only looking at pictures of cats and what people had for lunch.
In any case, Eb Scrooge knew that the way forward is existing customers for upgrades and for word of mouth referrals.
And then he uttered the SEVEN WORDS guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any business coaching Spirit of Customers Yet To Come...