Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Several months ago I had a small chip in my windshield fixed by one of those carwash chip-fixer guys. Without going into a lot of detail, it was a miserable experience. It took way too long, they didn't do what they said they'd do and it looked terrible. Today I was with a friend at that same carwash. When the chip-fixer guy approached, my friend simply said he would not need their service. When asked why, my friend told the guy that he knew someone who had a bad experience there. The chip fixer responded with "we usually get very positive feedback, you shouldn't believe just one negative comment." Naturally I chimed in.

This is not the first time I've had someone try to use their track record to convince another person to continue working with them. The problem is that it just doesn't work. Track records are good to help a new customer make a decision about two or more competing products or services. If I can find research showing that Company A is better in their industry than Company B, then I'm more likely to choose Company A if I've never used either of them. However, if I choose Company A and have a bad experience, their historical approval rating means nothing to me. I'm the dissatisfied customer and I really don't care if 99% of the world is satisfied. I'm not.

I work with a person who recently tried to sell our track record to an unhappy client. "In most cases our software works in that environment and we have tested it," he continued to say to the customer. Unfortunately, the customer couldn't get it to work so he really didn't care.

If you're in the business of service (and you probably are), think carefully before citing your personal or business track record. Are you talking to a prospect? Then go ahead. Are you talking to a dissatisfied customer? Don't go there.

Just my two cents.