How the pool guy cost himself $860

Our pool has been leaking quite a bit lately and my wife rang a pool guy to come and fix it. He was to arrive last Wednesday at 9 am.

He didn’t show.

My wife wasted 2-3 hours waiting around for him that morning. By the time she got hold of him, he said he couldn’t make it as he got caught up somewhere else.

He called in on the Friday, had a look at the problem and offered to fix it for $1,000.

But my wife didn’t trust him

By not turning up when he said he would, my wife had lost that all-important trust in him. She perceived that he didn’t care and wasn’t good at what he did. All because he didn’t show up when he said he would.

My wife rang another pool guy yesterday. He rocked up at 7 am today. Took a quick look and said, “Yep, that’ll be easy. It will take me an hour and I’ll charge you $140.”

Dave, the pool guy, fixed the pool before I had even got out of bed!

Here are some questions

• Who is the better pool fixer? No idea.
• Who’s perceived as the better pool fixer? Dave
• Who will get referrals for more business? Dave
• Who will probably have to advertise to attract clients? Not Dave.
• Who is, in the long run, going to be more profitable and build a better business? Dave

All that is because the other guy didn’t show up when he said he would. And it cost him $1,000 for an hours work.

A simple competitive advantage for many business could be just showing up on time! How easy is that.