Who Pays for Your Follow-up?

Last winter, I accidentally let the propane tank for my furnace run dry. Simple, silly consumer error: I just forgot to check the gauge on the tank for a few weeks during the coldest month of the year, and it ran empty. Oops.

I'd been through this song and dance once before, with a previous furnace and a previous provider. That previous provider made quite a production of coming out to my house, clucking over my mistake, checking out my furnace and my propane tank, and running some kind of complicated analytic process that seemed to involve draining out air that apparently got sucked into the tank as a result of its running empty. No one really took the time to explain why it was such a big hassle to fill my tank back up and get my furnace back on, and I didn't really care - try going a day without heat in South Dakota in January, and you wouldn't really care, either.

Oh, and the provider charged me a hundred bucks or so for the service call. Fine. I got my heat back on, and I was happy enough.

The second time it happened, with my new furnace and my new provider, I really hated to make that phone call. I expected the same song and dance I'd experienced with my previous provider, and I expected I'd have to shell out another hundred bucks or so to get my heat running again.

Instead, I explained my folly, and the representative on the phone just said, "Oh, that's no big deal. We have a truck out in your area right now, and they'll stop by on their way back to fill up your tank. After they're gone, just go down to your furnace and hit the reset button a couple of times, and it'll clear itself out and start running again."

Oh. Huh. That was easy. And it didn't cost me any extra for a service call, either.

I thought of this experience while reading this article about "Five Ways to Effectively Follow Up (Without Being Annoying or Breaking the Bank)." It's not always about the sale; sometimes, customers just need a solution. As the author writes, "When a customer calls you or stops by to ask you a question, don't view it as an opportunity to make a sale. View it as an opportunity to help a customer. These are your bread-and-butter follow-up opportunities."

My previous provider made me hate calling in with a problem because I knew they'd make a service call out of it, and I knew I'd have to shell out extra cash for their assistance. They made follow-up about making a new sale. My new provider just solved my problem and didn't charge me a penny extra. They make follow-up a part of taking care of their existing customers.

Next time I have a problem, I'll be happy to call them back - and I'll be happy to pay any service charges that do arise in the future. Why? Because now I know they're not just charging me because they can, and I know that helping me out is a part of their follow-up operations to keep me as a happy customer.

Any lessons we can apply to attendee/member care?

Serenity J. Knutson, Editor in Chief
PlannerWire.com
Serenity@PlannerWire.com

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