Make Your Customers Know You

Want Their Business

A videographer who I use frequently to shoot videos for my business sent me an e-mail saying that he needed to make some extra money, was looking at my website and wanted to know which courses I’d recommend for him.

I e-mailed back a few suggestions based on what I know about him and his personal situation. I also told him that I was toying with the idea of shooting a video that I wasn’t’ that confident would sell well, but that if he was interested I’d happily trade him an equal value of courses for his services for this particular video.

There was a little bit of back and forth including an offer from me to pay him partially in cash and partially with barter, but ultimately his best offer was for me to give him a $179 course in exchange for a $25 discount. He explained that his reason for this decision was that he needed money quite badly right now.

Considering that I’ve hired him to shoot four videos for me in the last 4 months, it didn’t seem like he was too interested in making any accommodation for me, so I passed and said that if I decided to hire him I’d just give him his regular rate.

I’m not angry and may very well still use him again, but I’m now going to seek out a few other vendors and see if any want my business enough to offer me a more attractive rate on this video shoot. And, if someone does and they also prove to do a good job, they may get all of my future work. So, by not going that extra mile to show me he wants my business he might lose all of my future business and on top of that…if he really did need money so badly right now, he’d have more money in his pocket by taking my offer for a partial cash payment on this video.

In almost all cases except where the customer has a powerful reason for requiring your specific services or products, customers are often willing to change who they do business with fairly easily. When a situation comes up where a customer wants you to go the extra mile, it’s a good idea to do it whenever possible.

I’ve given price discounts to customers who wanted to buy a package of courses from me at once, I return e-mails and offer my best advice without charge to my subscribers. In my copywriting business I’ve given steep discounts to clients who needed a break to get a project going and in my years in the dance instruction business I bent over backwards too many times to count. The return on this investment is that in all of my businesses I enjoy a great deal of customer loyalty and increased profits from that loyalty.

Have a positive day,

Paul Lawrence