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Thinking Like Your Customer


March 20, 2019

Have you ever gone into a restaurant or a store and been shocked at how disconnected from reality the people working there were?  If you ask the server at a pizza restaurant whether they sell by the slice, or you ask an employee at the grocery store where to find the cleaning supplies, sometimes they’ll look at you like you have two heads.

You think to yourself – How do you not know the answer to that question?  Whether they’re doing it consciously or not, they look at you like you’re stupid, and it makes you want to leave and never shop there again.

These questions are rational to anyone who hasn’t spent so much time inside of those businesses.  But to people who have spent a great deal of time there, it’s impossible to imagine someone wouldn’t know the answers to those questions. They forget what it’s like to not know everything about how the business operates. (And, they are also not very good at customer service.)

Unfortunately, this can happen to anyone who takes the time to learn their industry.  If you spend most of your waking life thinking about the painting business, you probably get questions all the time that seem crazy. 

People might ask if they can save money by skipping the primer step, or painting over wallpaper.  They might assume that nobody can really paint a straight line unless they use painter’s tape on everything.  They probably won’t think about freezing temperatures being a problem at all.

When you get these questions, it’s possible that the person is trying to get a rock-bottom price, and they won’t be the type of customer that you are hoping to do business with.  But it’s equally likely that they just don’t want to pay extra for a “perfect” paint job and want to see if skipping a step or two will save them money.  They may have no idea what they’re asking you to do at all.

These questions may seem to have obvious answers, but they may not; it’s difficult to know what you wouldn’t know if you weren’t an expert in the painting industry.  When you get questions like this, it’s important to imagine yourself at that pizza counter or grocery store. 

Don’t just tell them you won’t do what they’ve asked you to do.  Take the time to explain why you do things the way you do them, and what would happen if you didn’t. 

Often times, the customer will accept your explanation without any further complaint.  In some cases, they’ll appreciate that someone took the time to actually explain what goes into the paint job they’re paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for.  But no matter what goes through their head, the conversation will definitely go better than that unconscious look of shock that sometimes happens when you aren’t prepared for these questions.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help you gain more painting business with a website that searches well, call us at 855-385-1134 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.