Kindness Pays Off

I know this sounds weird, you are kind to every customer you talk to, right? But when is the last time you sent a potential client to a competitor?

Take this scenario: A customer comes into a computer repair shop with the latest Macintosh that got dropped. Everything looks okay, but it’s not working right anymore. The repair shop usually only works on PCs, but they don’t say anything because they want the business.

So, they spend way too many hours trying to fix a computer they know little about. They only charge the customer half the amount of time they spent, but the computer still doesn’t work quite right when the customer gets it back.

Now the repair shop is out a lot of time and the customer is not happy because they spent a lot of money and their computer isn’t repaired. That makes the company look bad.

Let’s turn the scenario around. A customer comes into a computer shop to get their Macintosh repaired. The person at the counter takes one look and says “wow, this is a great laptop, it has all the newest and latest stuff on it. I’m sorry, sir, but we specialize in PC repair and don’t have the tools to repair this particular laptop correctly. However, there is a computer repair shop down the road that does specialize in Macintosh. I know that they can help you get this up and running.”

You may not believe this, but you would have just gotten a referral for life.

That person would have told everyone they know with a PC to take it to that shop. Kindness doesn’t just mean being kind, it means telling the truth and being on the customer’s side even when it may lose you money in the short-term. And even if they never refer you to anyone, you can hold your head high for doing the right thing.