Audio Visual Solutions

An interesting read to start off our new Blog that I came across.  No matter what industry you are in, I believe this applies. The worry-some part for me personally is that I have a young daughter and this is more of what I have to look forward to?!…CK

SnapAV April 13, 2011 Jays Blog: Honey, Don’t Date the Guy That Only Treats You Right After You Leave

I have two girls that are not far from starting to date boys. My only problem with this situation is that I remember my boyhood. Not that I was all that bad (or all that good for that matter), but for many boys it wasn’t that cool to treat girls well.

Girls seemed to be treated best when they left the boy who had treated them badly for another boy that treated them like they deserved to be treated. Suddenly, the bad boy behaved really well, showed them a bunch of attention, and made them a lot of promises.

Where the heck am I going with this? Let’s bring it back to business. Companies can be a lot like adolescent boys. If there is not sufficient competition they don’t treat their customers well. But, as soon as they lose customers, many times they correct their ways in order to win them back. But have they really changed?

Girls and customers deserve to be treated well. Chances are that if you are reading this email, part of the reason you’re doing business with SnapAV is because we do treat you well. Your previous relationship?….well, maybe not so much. Many of you have told me that we treat you far better.

I have heard rumors (which I think are probably true) that other companies are ready to pounce on our customers for their speaker business now that our Holy Snap program has ended. They didn’t want to make their best move while their adversary was buying its customers flowers every day. Now they’re ready to put their best face on, lavish you with gifts, and sweep you off your feet. I don’t think they will.

I think they miss the point. They think that marketing and promotions are our secret sauce, and if they come up with their own promo or “absolute best price” they can pull you back. And while our crazy promos may be what got you to try us, it’s the good old-fashioned way we treat you that keeps you coming back. You’ve told us this in surveys, and in the conversations we have with you every day.

In many cases we have been used as a bargaining tool to get better deals with existing vendors. I have heard this many times usually in the form of an apology. It goes something like this: “I love you guys, you treat me so well…but when I started switching my speaker business to you the guys at X company made me a deal I couldn’t refuse.”

At this point I simply say “I’m glad that we helped your business one way or another”. And while I actually do mean that (after all, I want dealers to be successful), I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me a bit. The question I want to ask is “OK, so they were taking advantage of you for all these years, and then you dump me when they finally ask you to the prom?”

We all need a healthy industry in order to make a good living. Jobs don’t grow on trees any more and customer won’t pay any number you ask them to. We need everyone to be on their best game. Hopefully, we are putting pressure on others to do just that. So, if you do use us to get a better deal from the vendors that didn’t give you the best treatment or best deals in the first place, make it hurt. Employ the “walk away” strategy (i.e. you didn’t get a great deal when you bought the car if you they didn’t chase you out into the parking lot as you walked away).

Or, you could do what I would tell my daughters to do: stay with the one that has always treated you right.