One of the Best Things That I've Ever
Done
Volume 12, Number 32
Issue 580
One of the best things I’ve ever done was to stop taking telephone calls from people selling office equipment—specifically, photocopiers—and be very loyal to the greatest “littlest” sales and repair company that I could find: John Fryer’s Levere Business Products (1-804-794-7402).
Perhaps one of the worst things that I’ve ever, ever, ever done was to buy a $10,000 photocopier based on how funny a radio commercial was. This was back in 1996 when I moved my firm to our current location. What I did before then (from 1990 to 1996) is a story in and of itself that will be for an entire TaxFax ™ someday (by the way, thanks, Roy Hipwell of Hardwell Office Supply (1-804-744-0171), I could never have survived 1990 to 1996 without you)).
Funny radio commercials that are done on a saturation basis RARELY (unless done in a very specialized way by Mike Mazursky and the folks at RadioRichmond (1-804-643-0990)) lead you to great service providers. Instead, they lead you to big companies that are desperately trying to get mass quantities of new customers for one reason or another. After my particular experience with buying my largest single business expense ever from the biggest place in town, I resolved to find someone who would solve my needs and not their own. I certainly did succeed when I lucked into John Fryer and Levere Business Products (remember, 1-804-794-7402) and have never—no, not ever—regretted it.
The big sales and service company (not Levere) sent out a salesperson that simply lied to me. Maybe I was naive, but I was told that I could get a million copies on one $10,000 copier. Later, at only about 350,000, when it was on its “last days,” the salesperson couldn’t be found and a new one confided to me that I was probably told what I wanted to hear. BUT (big “but”) they’d be happy to give me $250 on a trade in on a new machine that would be even better, faster and would be a total solution to every printing problem that I could ever imagine. “I didn’t even know how much I needed the machine,” I was told.
Still, I was not convinced that there wasn’t life left in the old machine. I asked John Fryer of Levere Business Products to breathe a little more life into it and he did—about 100,000 more copies as a matter of fact for only a few hundred dollars. I became convinced that the most important thing to the big flashy name-brand company was sales and not service when, actually, the opposite was what was important to me. Because, after all, CPAs are in the paper business and photocopied products are—literally—my product.
When it was time to buy a new-to-me machine, John just listened to what I wanted and how I wanted to use it and we agreed that “going digital” wasn’t really for me. He found a gently used analog copier for about $3,500 and took great pains to install it on the second floor of my 1850s office in Midlothian. We’ve been loyal ever since and that was probably about 300,000 copies ago.
When it comes to service with Levere, we don’t keep getting different people like we did with the big company. It’s either John or the same technician every time. They understand and remember our (as well as the machine’s) quirks. Service is within hours at the appointed time and not just “as soon as possible.”
When I had an emergency over a weekend to run 20,000 copies in two days (not the smartest thing I ever did) for my political campaign, John came to my rescue and kept the machine going. When he read the issue-oriented flyers about my campaign, he was so happy that I was running for public office that he said that his work to fix the machine would be his contribution to the campaign and that he was proud of me.
Recently, we had an unusual problem with the machine. John’s usual technician just couldn’t figure it out after spending about two hours. John—himself—was here the next morning and had it fixed in ten minutes. He made sure to state that his employee’s problem with figuring out my problem wouldn’t be billed to me. Though that was the right thing to do, I didn’t ask for that courtesy; he simply stated that mater-of-factly.
I’ll never forget how John and his staff were with our one constraint about buying the new-to-me machine. He found it challenging that I wanted to get a 500 pound machine up two 1850s stairways and place it on a mat on heart pine floors that came from trees that started growing long before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Rather than complain, he looked at that as a memorable opportunity to gain a customer for life and have a great marketing story to tell.
The best small business people—like John—know to make their experiences with their customers solutions-oriented and memorable. I remember every interaction with John and his staff because they tailor each one to fit my needs. Dealing with the photocopy guy becomes fun and isn’t dreaded! Every business can learn from John. One happy service call will not make me afraid to have another.
John is a man of his word and he listens. John didn’t oversell me and he remembers that he is in the business of solving problems simply and correctly—the first time. Too many business owners never remember that they are primarily “in business” to solve problems and that the actual product that they sell should be secondary. If customers didn’t have a problem or could solve it themselves, they wouldn’t be wanting in line to spend money. Successful businesses know that they live for problems and only for the ability to solve them..
John looks at problems as opportunities. The best businesses have stricken “I can’t do that” from their vocabularies and constantly repeat “Absolutely, I will figure out how to get it done.” John remembers that the worst thing any company can ever sell is something that baits and switches the customer in the long run. If the customer doesn’t know what they want, sell to that customer like you would sell to yourself. Become the customer yourself. Use the same principles of conservatism and solutions-oriented advice that you would want. Constantly under-promise and over-perform.
John is low-key. He acts as a calming force when I am frantic and upset about our photocopier being temporarily broken. He reassures me that I’ll be back to normal right away and that it will be done right. Too many businesses prey on the temporary physical state of customers in anxious states of emotion. The best businesses know that lifetime customer relationships can be forged by having the strength to offer a constant calming “I’ll take care of it” reassurance while at the same time keeping commitments with a happy attitude.
If you run your company like John runs his little one, you’ll be smiling all the way to the bank (over and over and over and over).
David B. Robinson, CPA
Index of Previous Issues of Tax Fax
