In The Business Of Being GREAT
by Blair Cariss
In business I firmly believe that good isn’t really good enough. In today’s business climate you have to be GREAT to be successful – in the long run anyway. You don’t have to be great at everything but when it comes to your core business it’s really important.
I speak from my own experiences in business and as a consumer generally. I claim to be ‘great’ at printing and all the things that go with that – customer service, quality control, meeting deadlines etc. I hope as a customer of Cariss Printing that we’ve lived up to that ‘greatness’. I’m not great at accounts, technology, reports and probably heaps of other stuff. But I employ people or outsource them so they get done. But my core business I work hard to make sure it is GREAT.
I had an experience recently that highlighted to me that I rarely experience this greatness as a consumer – especially with tradespeople. But when you do it really is great, it’s easy, it’s pleasant and frankly you want to tell people about it. The story I want to tell is about getting my house restumped. Well it’s not really my story it’s Michael’s from Major Reblocking and Underpinning.
We organised at least 7 quotes to have our house restumped. Our house is really low to the ground and we wanted someone who wouldn’t rip up the floor and make our young family move out with all our belongings for a week or more. Michael was the first one to respond to our quote request. He arranged an appointment for the next day. Arrived 5 minutes early. Gave us a quote on the spot. Explained that he would do the job from underneath the house but he MAY have to lift a few floorboards inside.
Anyway we got the 6 other quotes. One didn’t get back to us. 5 of them said no way they could go under you’d need to move out. Quotes ranged from $7K to $14K. Michael was around the $9K mark. We weren’t after the cheapest quote, we were after someone who would do the job properly with the least amount of inconvenience.
Anyway we were not disappointed. Michael and his team were GREAT at their core business. They arrived EVERY single day at 8am (when they said they would), they went about their business with no fuss, they were courteous, they cleaned up after themselves EVERY day, they gave regular updates on how things were tracking and they worked exceptionally hard. When an issue arose they came to us with a plan rather than just a problem. They managed our expectations on what damage to expect inside the house. They even worked for 4 days straight before asking for any money. AND they didn’t need to lift a single floorboard.
They finished ahead of schedule, on budget and barely disrupted our lives for the week they were working. And what they did wasn’t all that difficult or special considering this is what they do for a living. But they were GREAT.
I asked Michael where he gets his work from. He admits marketing is not a strength so he relies on online business directories for work. And referrals. They don’t have a website but they did have professionally printed quoting books (NCR books) and a great business card. Michael is busy and has a GREAT business because his core business is GREAT. I have left a glowing review on their online directory page. Simone and I gave them a shout out on our personal facebook pages. We know of at least 2 referrals they can expect that are pretty much sure things now.