When 'other half' rules

Who says that women are the weaker sex? They certainly aren't when it comes to running a business in this industry. To be a successful businessman (or woman) you have to have the "killer" instinct, especially when it comes to selling.

I have bleated on at great length in past issues about our failings when it comes to selling, but what about our daily lives of fixing and servicing systems? We often fall down in that corner as well. Let's start with my own misdemeanours. I freely admit that in the past I have gone out to a fault and found it to be a customer error due to them not being familiar with the system. Rather than charge them for it I have allowed for their inexperience and put the fault down to a blown fuse and covered it under the guarantee.

Going back home afterwards and reporting to my wife (who at that time did the phone and the books) I then received a rocket ... about profit and loss and not being so bloody daft and saying in no uncertain terms that "we cover all failures and poor workmanship but we are not going to cover the customer's stupidity". She was right of course; you cannot run a business and a charity shop at the same time.

Facing up to the customer
By the same token, I have to say that she never ever complained when we had to turn out at our own expense when the cause was genuine. She was dead straight down the line and there were no grey shaded areas about responsibilities.

Over the last ten years I have seen the same situation many times over in the small "one man and his wife" businesses.

It is almost always the man who will do a "freebie" in the name of good business relations whilst the little lady at home will not.

I think the main reason for this phenomenon is: Who has to face up to the customer and who looks at the paperwork?

When faced with telling a customer "I'm sorry but it is your fault and I will have to charge you for it", it's often the easy way out just to give in and persuade yourself that your business will be all the better for the goodwill and your loss will be returned five times over in all the extra business that will be generated.

Think again Sunshine! You have just lost hard cash and you are not going to get it back.

Trust the woman's instinct in this case. The real fact of the matter is that the customer will say very little when they win in a case like this, but they will tell all the world and his dog when you fall down. Don't forget the old saying "A satisfied customer will tell one, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten".

Anyway, if the customer did go about telling people how you gave them a 'free' job when it was really their fault it will once again do your company more harm than good because everyone will want the same 'treat'.

The parallel situation is the company that starts out fitting cheap systems to get the company going and to build up a reputation and a customer base. All you do is get one person telling the next how cheap you were and not how good a job you did and then they all want the system installed at the cheap price regardless of the quality. You have now firmly plonked your company in the "cheapo" bracket and you automatically attract the wrong kind of "bang it in cheap" customer and it takes years to build up your prices to the right level.

Fitting cheap alarms is not always the best policy! On the other hand, the little lady at home who has to pay your bills and send out your invoices will raise hell until you get your prices and profits up. It may have something to do with having to feed and clothe the kids (not to mention the big one that wears the long trousers) and run the house as well. Perhaps it's time you started listening to her a bit more.

Like I said earlier, I have seen this situation many times in many installation companies and I firmly believe that the most profitable companies are the "one man and his wife" set ups. I will also say that in all those years I have never come across a situation where a woman will take advantage of a situation to overcharge.

They want their pound of flesh – no more no less. On the other hand I have on a few occasions had the man of the company admit to me that he puts his prices up for bigger houses, or if he sees a BMW in the drive instead of an Escort or an Astra.

I am not convinced that this is "ethical" but my job was "inspector" not "conscience" and it wasn't my place to judge.

Another point where women score very heavily is in the debt collecting department. They have a tendency to turn into a rottweiller with lipstick when a customer won't pay up. Once they sink their teeth in they will not let go until the bill is settled in full.

I remember one case well over ten years ago where a customer was refusing to pay a bill of around £35 (turn out, fix the fault , supply and fit one extra PIR). My wife said "Did you get the job sheet signed?"

"Yes" I answered. "Right, we've got him", she said and the case went to court and we won hands down with expenses. The job then cost the customer well over £150. I would have taken the easy route and just refused to look at his alarm again.

I know some lads accuse their wives of back seat driving the business, but perhaps we all underestimate and undervalue the power of the woman in our lives.

I would strongly suggest that you take her a big bunch of flowers just to show how much she means to your business … on the other hand you may find yourself being grilled as to why the flowers and the guilty conscience that goes with it, and what have you done wrong that you have to buy flowers to cover it up? Well, perhaps you had better save it for her birthday.

When faced with telling a customer ‘It’s your fault’ it’s often easier to give way in the hope of goodwill business ... think again Sunshine!

Customer-proof system
Recently I was asked for security advice by the owner of a local one-roomed shop.

He had just increased his stock level and been told by the insurance company to get a NACOSS system with RedCARE and police response. I explained about the entry system and confirmation etc and we sat down over a cup of tea to resolve the problem and here's what we came up with: The problem is the one entry door; However we enter, it removes the confirmation and the police response (yes – we all know that) so the only answer is to have another form of "entry door".

We decided that a stout metal bar should be placed across the door, secured by a padlock, and the padlock covered by a steel box with a door on the front. The steel box door being locked in turn by a five-lever BS lock.

The steel box would also contain a remote keypad and be electronically protected by a door switch (to start the entry timer) and a back tamper switch to detect attempts to remove it from the wall and a vibration detector to provide confirmation to the back tamper.

We have effectively created a new "room" for the entry/exit and left the rest of the shop on full instant alarm.

To unset the alarm the user opens the door on the steel box and starts the entry time of no more that ten seconds and unsets the system via the RKP. He can then open the padlock and remove the bar to open the shop.

If the thief comes along to defeat the system he must open the door on the steel box without tripping the vibro or the back tamper, this means he needs a key or a lock pick of some kind. If he attacks the box then he will set off the vibro and the system on first call. If he persists (even with a sounder clattering in his ear) and manages to get the box off the wall he creates the required confirmation via the back tamper and he still has to start on the shop.

If he goes straight for the shop door he has to get the bar off first which means he will probably set of the vibro and/or the back tamper. If he gets the door open without upsetting the bar there will be instant confirmation with the door contact and the PIR in the shop.

I have no doubt that many readers will see faults and loopholes in the idea but it has to be a way of getting full cover on a one roomed shop AND complying with the ACPO policy AND an entry system that is virtually guaranteed customer error proof, which – at the end of the day – was the whole point of the ACPO policy anyway.

Willow has me weeping
For ten years or more my office was a wooden shed in the back garden. A couple of years ago when my youngest daughter left home I was finally able to move the office into her old room and abandon the shed. Not before time because this year the shed rotted beyond repair and it had to be pulled down.

My wife and I decided to have a new shed (concrete this time) at the far end of the garden so preparations were made. First, the huge willow tree had to go so a firm was brought in to remove it, but they left the stump. They cut a slot in the stump and poured in some special killer and said "It'll be alright now, that'll kill it".

The stump had other ideas and immediately started growing new shoots all around the base. At this point a friend said to me "Don't worry, my brother has access to a digger, drop him a bob or two and he will pull the root out for you".

The brother was contacted and a deal was struck ... he'd come round when I was out.

  I returned home from my days work to find the stump gone and the site levelled off. Brilliant! I was over the moon and paid him double the twenty quid he was asking.

Next I called in the team to dig out and set the concrete base. They started digging and found ... a tree root, and a big one at that. After a lot of digging and struggling we found that my friend's brother had pulled the root out OK but he had just dug an even bigger hole and re-buried it. Had we not found the root it would have started growing again and in 20 years time I would have had a first class concrete tree house! As it was I now had a five-foot wide tree root sat in the middle of my lawn. I reported the matter to my friend.

"I will kill him" said my friend, and he tried to call him on the mobile. There was no answer.

"I know, I 'll call my mum" he said.

Mum was called and she made dire threats against the life of the brother unless he rectified the problem and gave me my money back. In the meantime the lads doing the concrete base had completed the job and even carted the stump away.