September 2008

So picture this scenario: You wake up one morning to the sound of dripping water. You rush to your kitchen to find a backed up sink and half an inch of standing water covering the floor.

Once you clean up the mess and find a temporary fix, what is the first thing you do?

You rush to either the phone book or to the internet and look up someone to help you remedy the situation. You can’t really tell much about a plumber without having seen them work, so you operate under the assumption that anyone you call is capable of completing the job. If you do wind up with a crummy plumber, all you have to do is call another one. So what is the determining factor when picking a plumber to fix your crisis? The first one that is available.

If you go through the listed plumbers in the phone book or from a Google search and you call one who doesn’t answer, do you wait for them to get back to you? No. You want your flooded kitchen back to normal and you want it done now. You move on to the next name in your list and you call until one of them picks up and agrees to come fix your problem.

Now take this equation and replace the flooded kitchen with a barking, aggressive or destructive pet. Both problems are urgent situations in which the client is eagerly seeking a speedy remedy. You, as a listed dog trainer, are no different to a customer who has not worked with you before than that list of random plumbers is to you. Effective marketing can help increase your list of clients, but no matter how much research a potential customer has done on dog trainers, they will no doubt not wait around for a call back from a dog trainer they only have background information on. If you don’t pick up the phone, all they have to do is move on to the next name on the list.

This is why it is so important that you always answer your phone. Every phone call that you miss is a lost opportunity to build a profitable relationship with a client and to help your business grow. Every time that ringing phone is lost to another dog trainer out there, you are costing yourself money that could have gone to your pocket.

Cell phones are cheap these days and can go everywhere you do. Make your business line a cell phone or if you have to use a landline, have it rollover to your personal cell or make sure to have a cordless phone that can go outside or around the house or office with you.

In keeping with the rule that professional availability means more dollars in your bank account, keep in mind the hours that you answer your business calls. I answer my phone seven days a week, from 8 am to 8 pm. To you this may sound extreme, but I get plenty of customers I may not have otherwise because of it.

Today’s post is a bit off subject but we all need to think about what happened this last week-end.

Do you ever stop and just listen to the daily news headlines…..horrific train crash in Los Angeles…Hurricane Ike pounding the Gulf Coast and forcing millions of people out of their homes.

Hurricane Ike really hit home with my family…my Mother-in-law lives just outside of Galveston, Texas which took a direct hit. It will still be several days before she is allowed back into her town to see if she still has a house standing or if, at the age of 77 years, she will have to start all over. My wife hopes that her childhood home is still intact and has weathered another storm.

She remembers Hurricane Carla…she was a small child and but can still remember the devastation that hit her small town. Water was over 4-1/2 feet tall throughout her family home…nothing was salvagable except for 2 marble slabs that were tops to her Mom’s favorite coffee tables. Today, over 30 years have passed, and she still has one of those marble slabs!

My heart goes out to all of those along the Gulf Coast who have been displaced by the storm. Our Government learned from Katrina and is in place ready to help. And those of us who do not live in Hurricane-proned areas can help by donating to the Red Cross. Visit www.redcross.org to help Hurricane Ike victims.

I wish the Gulf Coast a speedy recovery!!

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