Voicemails

Almost Verbatim Responses When We Return Phone Calls
  • You didn’t pickup the phone right away
  • Who cares if you were servicing other clients
  • We snowbirds come down 4 months a year…drop everything when we call
  • We found someone ‘cheaper’ — and it took you 10 minutes to respond
  • We found someone ‘cheaper’ — none of us know what the problem is — but he said it would cost $40 — no matter what
  • You helped us 5 years ago…why didn’t you call us back right away
  • I have a tech coming tomorrow — if it doesn’t work out, we’ll call you
  • I saw a sign at the traffic island to call an 800 number for a free repair
  • I’ll send you a screenshot — just tell me what I need to do for the fix
  • Why do i need to replace my perfectly usable 15 year old Windows 7 computer
  • My inkjet printer is 7 years old and cost me $100 — why are you trying to screw me by saying it’s not worth the repair
  • Yes, I want you to drive from North Port to Siesta Key during I-75 rush hour to replace my $20 keyboard –but I’m not paying travel time
  • Why can’t you just replace the Verizon FIOS cable, they will never know

Lowest Cost Bid

We Own A Million Dollar Home But You Aren’t The Cheapest

A classic line from folks who call us to ‘shop around’: “You’re a little pricey, I can get it cheaper from Company X.”

Our respectful response: “Then get it cheaper from Company X.”

In a competitive IT services market, racing to the bottom almost always leads to bad behavior — but smart customer know this. Think about it…the US Navy doesn’t award their next submarine construction contract to the lowest bidder. Every great and successful brand is known for something other than how cheap they are.

Henry Ford achieved success using mass production and interchangeable parts to build efficient manufacturing processes resulting in the lowest cost vehicles on the market. Very quickly, Ford and his team learned that people didn’t actually want the cheapest car. They wanted, and still want, a car to be proud of — a bit safer — and maybe a bit more stylish.

In other words, a quality product built by people who care. People who can earn a living wage but don’t live for the wage. A vocation that allows them to be productive company contributors..but also to productively contribute to their communities.

In the long run, ‘I can get it cheaper’ is a refuge for folks possessing short term thinking, don’t value quality, and in other than a commodity market, end up paying more to achieve successful outcomes.

This post is adapted from https://seths.blog/2014/05/the-tyranny-of-lowest-price/ and thank you Seth for the inspiration!

Just Delete It

The FBI, Microsoft, and Google Will Never Call Or eMail You

This is a nicely done single page computer security refresher from the FBI.

https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/safety-resources/scams-and-safety/on-the-internet

Of particular interest is the note in the lower right:

Note: The FBI does not send mass emails to private citizens about cyber scams. If you received an email that claims to be from the FBI Director or other top official, it is most likely a scam.

Replace FBI in that note with ‘Apple’, ‘Dell’, ‘Microsoft’, ‘Google’, etc., and it still holds true. Those companies will never contact you directly via email, browser pop-up, phone, text, carrier pigeon, etc., regarding a security issue. If you think they are contacting you directly with a legitimate communication, they aren’t. Please delete the email, don’t take the phone call, and dismiss the browser popup.

Quote Requests

Very Real Customer Requests
  • My printer won’t scan, how much to fix it?
  • I have a computer software problem, what do you charge?
  • I need to use my computer for some important work and am leaving for up north soon. Can’t get to my copier either as it’s buried in a mess. Very frustrating. How much to fix?
  • Need to recover data from a USB drive. What will it cost?
  • I’m looking to increase my web traffic/inquiries. How much to make the adjustments?
  • My Surface Pro and MSI laptop no longer work. I would like to get photos off of them. How much would it cost?

In each instance above, when we requested additional/followup information, the person refused to provide any details without a price. If the above customer requests seem reasonable to you — please, please, please don’t contact us.