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"10 Reasons Why Public Opinion Is Low For Professionals Who Do
By Laura Bankston, Fri Dec 9th
Too many service professionals believe and rely on the commonadage "50% of success is just showing up." In fact, they seem to act that, "If half of my success is justshowing up, I don't really have to do anything and will get byjust fine." You may be thinking that's totally insane! But what else couldthey be thinking? For, here are the 10 reasons why peopledistrust, hate, and avoid in-home service professionals like thebubonic plague:
REASON #1: THEY DON'T RETURN PHONE CALLS--well, hey. Maybethat's even too generous. Half the time you can't even getsomeone to answer the phone. You'll find that only 90% ofservice business don't even answer their business phone. Mostrely purely on voice mail or answering machines to take yourcalls. And you'll be lucky if ANY of those even return your call! Just a few weeks ago I was in need of a new lawn mowing service.I called EVERY lawn mowing service in the yellow pages. I got ananswering machine for every phone number except one. On eachanswering machine, I left the message that I need weekly lawnservice for my home and to call me to set up a time or let meknow if they needed to see the place first. Did I get a call back? NO. Not one of them called me back andit's been over two weeks. And then, the one that I did get a "live" person--you know howthat went? I called the number and got a "hello?" I thoughtmaybe I had the wrong number. So, I asked if this was such andsuch business. The lady acted like she never heard of it. Idouble checked the phone number with her and it was the rightnumber. I apologized and told her I was calling from the yellowpages and that they had the wrong number listed. "Oh." She said. "He be back soon." You've got to be kidding me. Needless to say, I didn't invitethem out to my home. But any other service that would have justCALLED ME BACK would have gotten my business. That's a shame. So, I decided to my service industry: carpet cleaning. I starteddown the list of 98 carpet cleaners in my area--after 20answering machines. I just gave up. Why should anyone put with that? And for those that do finallycall you back, why should they be PAID for such rude,inconsiderate, selfish,"I-Know-You-Need-Me-So-I'll-Call-You-If-And-When-I-Feel-Like-It"attitude? REASON #2: THEY DON'T SHOW UP ON TIME When's the last time youhad a service professional show up on time? After all, aren'tyou the one that re-arranged your whole schedule--had to takeoff work, have someone else pick up the kids from school, orwhatever--just so you could have the "honor" of having them showup at your home when it's convenient for them? After all, that's how they act. Like it's somehow a privilegefor you to have their service; rather than how it should be--aprivilege for THEM to be serving YOU. But, again, I've been too generous. It's hard to even GET anexact appointment time for someone to show up on time. Don't you just love it when you call someone for service, andthey say, "O.K. We'll be there between 1-5 p.m. on Tuesday."Geez, like you have nothing to do but take a whole unpaid dayoff just to get your stuff taken care of? My cable company--which happens to be the ONLY cable company inAnchorage--told me this when I needed service for a repair thatwas a problem with THEIR cable box in my home: "The tech will bethere between 10a.m.-5p.m., so you'll need to be there when hearrives or you'll have to reschedule your appt." So, on the dayappointed--I had to run to the store real quick. A 10 minutetrip. I even called the cable company to let them know that Iwould be back in 20 min. Still, I returned home to find a tag onmy door that I had missed service and to call to reschedule. IWAS TICKED! For all the money you pay, why should you have to but up withthat? REASON #3: THEY DON'T SHOW UP AT ALL I'm sure that exact thinghas happened to you more times that you can count on your fingerand toes--even if you have four sets of each. Nothing is more aggravating than to go through all you have tojust to be home for the appointment--and they never show up!! I bet this one has happened to you like it has me. You buy newcarpet. You schedule with the installer for Tuesday--sometimeduring the day mind you, no specific time--and he never showsup. So you call at the end of Tuesday. After 5 tries, you finallyget to him on his cell phone. "Oh," he explains. "This job tookme much longer than I expected and I'll be there tomorrow forsure." No apology. No specific time for the next day. What, are you supposed to give your two weeks notice at workjust to have service done? REASON #4: THEY SHOW UP LOOKING LIKE A 'JUST RELEASED' PRISONINMATE Let's face it. Most women end up scheduling serviceappointments because they tend to take care of the stuff in thehome. But the man is present at the appointment 99% of the time.Why? Because most service professionals look gnarly anduntrustworthy. Women just don't feel safe being alone in theirhome with them. And since so many professionals show up looking like felons, TWOpeople have to take off work. The woman so she can show what shewants done and make sure it gets done to her satisfaction; andthe man to act as the most advanced "protection" and "anti-scam"technology. Again, why should you have to PAY someone to look
and act likethat in YOUR home? REASON #5: THEY DON'T DO A GOOD JOB Now you can take away allyour extra finger and toes and you probably can't even fill upyour fingers with professionals that actually do a Good job.What about EXCELLENT work? No. We have to put up with less thangood. Barely passable work. What happened to taking pride in work? What happened to honestyand integrity? Apparently it's becoming a thing of the past. Service Professionals do such a poor job at their work that theycan't offer a guarantee of any kind. They'd go broke if they didthat. They simply do a poor job, feeding on your necessity;forcing you to move on to someone else and "hope" for betternext time. REASON #6: THEY LEAVE A MESS You know, like the painter thatdoesn't bring a drop cloth, gets paint on your carpet, takesyour money, and leaves... The plumber that fixes the leaky pipe in your crawl space, comesout, tracks mud and dirt on your carpet, takes your money andleaves... The cable installer that walks with shoes on in your home,drills a hole in your wall, goes back outside to hook things up,comes back inside, leaves sheetrock and dirt on your carpet,takes your money, and leaves. Maybe they must think their mess magically disappears orsomething. No. Obviously they expect you to clean up after themor they'd clean up themselves, right? You shouldn't have to pay for a service and then clean up theirmess. But it happens over and over. REASON #7: THEY PLAY LOUD MUSIC, CUSS, AND MAKE A LOT OF NOISEHow someone can do that in your home is beyond me. It's YOUR home, and maybe you've even got small children. Butthey act like your stuff is theirs or that your not even around. Cleaners are especially guilty of this. Sure. I like to havemusic playing when I'm working; but what gives them the right toturn on your stereo--with or without asking--while working inyour home? They are there as a paid employee to provide a service andleave. Not to be provided with every comfort that belongs to you. And what about your children? How dare someone use filthylanguage or off-color jokes that will poison the minds of theones you so carefully molding? They should be kicked out of yourhome. And, how many times have you been on YOUR phone in YOUR home butcan't hear because of the worker's noise or the cleaner turningon the vacuum right next to you? Really. That's just too much. REASON #8: THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND CAN'T COMMUNICATE They'recalled "service professionals" because they're supposed to beprofessional. But they aren't. Maybe that's why we call them"workers"--just using the word "professional" in regards to themdegrades the term. To deserve the honor of "professional", one should be clean-cut,polite, competent, credentialed, and literate. You may wonder if you know any "professionals" at all? Obviouslymost service workers don't look the part; and to add insult toinjury, they can't talk it either. They can't talk in terms you understand They can't even repeatthe concerns you express They can't tell you what to expect fromtheir service They don't know the meaning of everyday words youuse You can't expect anything satisfactory from someone whocan't even communicate on a rudimentary level. REASON #9: THEY SMOKE AND SMELL OF SMOKE If you smoke, then thisprobably doesn't bother you. And so it may be news to you thatmost of us DON'T smoke and can't stand to have it blown in ourface or even smell it on your clothes. And not only that, but those of us who DON'T smoke avoid it forour health. And breathing your 2nd hand smoke is downrightUNHEALTHY--so we don't want to be around it. Really, I personally think this should be the #1 reason whyservice professionals are avoided like the bubonic plague.Because tobacco smoke kills you--just not as quickly. REASON #10: THEY USE 'BAIT AND SWITCH' SALES TACTICS Or sleezyones, or dis-honest ones...whatever you want to call it. "Bait and Switch" is probably the most common one. You know. Thepromise of one price--even from an estimate or coupon--and thenbeing told the price will be higher because of...whatever. Like the carpet cleaning coupon you get for $9.95 a room. Youclean 3 rooms, expecting a bill of $29.85; but you are handedone for $480.23. "What's the deal?" you ask. And then you get the run-around that the $9.95 a room was onlyfor rooms under 25 square feet and only for rooms that werecleaned with the basic process. And since all your rooms wereover 25 square feet, and since all your rooms required more thanthe basic process, your rooms were cleaned at the rate of $1.25per square foot. CONCLUSION: It's a wonder at all that their is an industry forservice professionals. There probably only is due to the publicneed for it. But what if you were provided with a simple tool that let youavoid the service industry, you'd grab it, wouldn't you? Well, you have the opportunity to avoid the carpet cleaningindustry. You don't have to give any carpet cleaner theopportunity to pull even one of the these 10 on you. For more information, please visithttp://www.cleanmyowncarpet.com or e-maillaura@cleanmyowncarpet.com About the author:Laura is owner of http://www.cleanmyowncarpet.com which providesteaching materials for consumer's to clean their own carpetbetter than any professional. She is certified by the IICRC anda member of ethicalservices.com
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