I'm hoping some of you seasoned professionals can help me see if I handled a recent problem customer properly, or should have done things differently...
She was a customer since before I owned the business (I bought it 7 years ago). She has always been one of the most demanding of my customers, and has always had very untidy pets (the kind that not only urinate in the house but also deficate). I have always provided additional pet spotting and other services at no charge, however, the last two times I performed work, I found worms under some of the furniture and had to decontaminate my tools and truck; the first time I did this with no extra charge. The last time, I charged for the decontamination because she had not had the issue dealt with, and explained that to her (I don't do pest control).
I did the work in mid August last year, and in November (more than 90 days later), she called me back for an issue with her main entry stairs, saying "your guys didn't do a good job on my stairs" (I am an owner operator and she is fully aware that I was the "guy" who did the work). I apologized for the mixup and asked why it took over 3 months for her to notice and call me back. She gave 3 different reasons (including, I know you're busy, so I waited an extra month). I told her I would come back to look at it, but explained that after so much time had passed it would be difficult to tell if it was an issue with the work, or if it was as a result of the stairs being used by people and pets every day, and that if I couldn't determine that it was an issue with workmanship, there would be a charge to clean the areas in question. She tried to show me a "line" halfway up the side risers (the little triangles) on one side of the staircase, which I honestly couldn't see. Maybe it was just the way the carpet reflected the light (which was off to the side of the staircase) created a shadow, even with a flashlight I couldn't tell. I also (probably a mistake) explained that I often don't need to clean the side risers because there is no foot traffic and they usually only need a dry vacuum to look really good, but that I always clean them if there are spots or spills (which there were none on these).
Since I felt that I could see no real visible issue with the stairs, even the treads still looked quite clean, I told her that I could not offer a free clean of her stairs, but that I would make an exception and waive my minimum charge (keep in mind that this would also require another decontamination of my truck and tools, since there was no mention of whether she dealt with the insect issue) which would be about half of the minimum charge. She wasn't very happy with that, and I did apologize again, but also reminded her that 3 months was a long time to wait if she wasn't happy with the work. She said not to worry about it, she would have another company fix it. I wasn't excited about losing a longtime customer, but I also realized that I have never made any profit when I do work for her and have often had to return at no charge at least once (I very rarely have to return to other jobs). A month later, she called me again (I was foolish to keep answering her calls, but it's a small town and I know I'll see her around), she proceeded to tell me that I would return to "fix" her stairs because "she knows a lot of people" and essentially said that she will go out of her way to do as much bad advertising as possible for my business if I didn't return. When I politely told her that I would return for the cost of cleaning, she proceeded to yell at me about my questionable business ethics, my morals etc. until I finally hung up. I wrote off the whole thing as experience, and moved on, but now about 2 weeks ago, she called saying that she wanted us to try things again "because I do good work" and said it was my choice if I wanted to continue the business relationship. Absolutely not. My wife returned the call and told her that it was nice she wanted things to be amicable but that we felt it was best for her to find another cleaner since she wasn't happy last time, to which she answered "No!" some choice I had...after trying to calmly talk to her, and after she once again threatened to tell as many as possible how much of a bad person I am and how bad our business is, my wife finally had to just hang up. Now she's written a bad review (my first bad review in 7 years) about a job that was done 7 months ago.
So, should I have guaranteed my work longer than 90 days? Should I have done more to put up with a problem customer rather than have a dissatisfied customer? Should I have walked away sooner? When does being an angry disgruntled customer cross the line to harassment?
She was a customer since before I owned the business (I bought it 7 years ago). She has always been one of the most demanding of my customers, and has always had very untidy pets (the kind that not only urinate in the house but also deficate). I have always provided additional pet spotting and other services at no charge, however, the last two times I performed work, I found worms under some of the furniture and had to decontaminate my tools and truck; the first time I did this with no extra charge. The last time, I charged for the decontamination because she had not had the issue dealt with, and explained that to her (I don't do pest control).
I did the work in mid August last year, and in November (more than 90 days later), she called me back for an issue with her main entry stairs, saying "your guys didn't do a good job on my stairs" (I am an owner operator and she is fully aware that I was the "guy" who did the work). I apologized for the mixup and asked why it took over 3 months for her to notice and call me back. She gave 3 different reasons (including, I know you're busy, so I waited an extra month). I told her I would come back to look at it, but explained that after so much time had passed it would be difficult to tell if it was an issue with the work, or if it was as a result of the stairs being used by people and pets every day, and that if I couldn't determine that it was an issue with workmanship, there would be a charge to clean the areas in question. She tried to show me a "line" halfway up the side risers (the little triangles) on one side of the staircase, which I honestly couldn't see. Maybe it was just the way the carpet reflected the light (which was off to the side of the staircase) created a shadow, even with a flashlight I couldn't tell. I also (probably a mistake) explained that I often don't need to clean the side risers because there is no foot traffic and they usually only need a dry vacuum to look really good, but that I always clean them if there are spots or spills (which there were none on these).
Since I felt that I could see no real visible issue with the stairs, even the treads still looked quite clean, I told her that I could not offer a free clean of her stairs, but that I would make an exception and waive my minimum charge (keep in mind that this would also require another decontamination of my truck and tools, since there was no mention of whether she dealt with the insect issue) which would be about half of the minimum charge. She wasn't very happy with that, and I did apologize again, but also reminded her that 3 months was a long time to wait if she wasn't happy with the work. She said not to worry about it, she would have another company fix it. I wasn't excited about losing a longtime customer, but I also realized that I have never made any profit when I do work for her and have often had to return at no charge at least once (I very rarely have to return to other jobs). A month later, she called me again (I was foolish to keep answering her calls, but it's a small town and I know I'll see her around), she proceeded to tell me that I would return to "fix" her stairs because "she knows a lot of people" and essentially said that she will go out of her way to do as much bad advertising as possible for my business if I didn't return. When I politely told her that I would return for the cost of cleaning, she proceeded to yell at me about my questionable business ethics, my morals etc. until I finally hung up. I wrote off the whole thing as experience, and moved on, but now about 2 weeks ago, she called saying that she wanted us to try things again "because I do good work" and said it was my choice if I wanted to continue the business relationship. Absolutely not. My wife returned the call and told her that it was nice she wanted things to be amicable but that we felt it was best for her to find another cleaner since she wasn't happy last time, to which she answered "No!" some choice I had...after trying to calmly talk to her, and after she once again threatened to tell as many as possible how much of a bad person I am and how bad our business is, my wife finally had to just hang up. Now she's written a bad review (my first bad review in 7 years) about a job that was done 7 months ago.
So, should I have guaranteed my work longer than 90 days? Should I have done more to put up with a problem customer rather than have a dissatisfied customer? Should I have walked away sooner? When does being an angry disgruntled customer cross the line to harassment?
