In a previous life I made a living running a business that among other things serviced lawnmowers and the like. For three years we took in every machine we could, and even though I employed up to five people in the workshop our waiting list in the summer always grew to 6 weeks or two months. (Customers would put there mower away at the end of autumn broken and expect it work when they took it out again the next spring)

This seemed quite attractive and I always enjoyed the knowledge that the waiting list meant that our work was guaranteed for the next few weeks, but there was a little tiny flaw in my happy world.

At least a half of the machines we had in were little electric jobs typically Flymo  etc. These machines were seldom bought from us and were relatively cheap to buy, so the price of a repair was limited because it was often as cheap to buy a new one. So we would dismantle it to assess the fault only to be told that the owner would buy another machine, sometimes they would promise to collect and it would hang around for months taking up valuable space. I had always put this down to being one of the hazards of being in business. We experimented around with customer deposits etc but still the problem persisted. The real down side was that the other half of the waiting list typically included high value petrol machines that repair charges were much higher for and when they were abandoned the spare part value made them an asset worth storing, plus people would often buy a replacement from us.

Now I am not proud that it took me three or four years to work this out, and even less proud that it took our delivery driver to come up with the solution ( That I called him Screensaver tells you everything you need to know about him. He was once stopped by the police for driving too slowly)

His idea, just refuse to take in Flymos, the result 6 weeks – 2 months waiting list of higher value petrol machines to be repaired less frustration and wasted time estimating costs for abortive jobs etc. and a huge uplift in workshop profitability!

Looking back there may well have been other things that I could have done but the lesson that I have taken from that is that taking every bit of business thrown at us might not be the wisest thing to do?

Just like most of us when I started I was just grateful the phone rang and I got customers, I was not focused on getting the right customers, maybe It was right to take those Flymos at the beginning but I was so obsessed with getting more customers I lost sight of the need for quality customers that I could make a profit out of.

That is my confession,-  how many customers do you have that probably cost you money?

Thanks for reading this, I am thinking of turning the adventures of Screensaver into a series!

Chris

P.s Incidentally I am close to launching a new £69+ vat a month business advice & support service, let me know if you want to be one of the first to get details!