How “No Problem!” Can Be A Problem In Your Cleaning Business

You hear it all the time. People toss the phrase around so casually, thoughtlessly and often, it quickly begins to lose any real meaning, or value.

And that’s the problem. What do I mean?

When you spit out a fast “No problem, no problem” to nearly any, and every question asked by your customer or prospect, you can, if you’re not careful, begin to come across as simply trying to pacify the person asking the question rather than really giving them real, thought-out answers.

Can you make sure you gather all the coffee mugs in the building, wash and dry them, and then return each of them to the desk they came from. No problem!

Can you have one of your cleaning people stop back out to our building about 10:30 PM, just to touch up the lunchroom for about 45 minutes? No problem!

Really?! How can everything be – “No problem!”?

It’s ridiculous to think so. Your customers and prospects aren’t stupid; they know it too. And there’s the opportunity.

You see, you customers and prospects, don’t need, nor to be honest, always want, to hear an instant, knee jerk “No problem!” response to every request. It makes them begin to doubt your sincerity, credibility and seriousness on actually carrying through on your lofty promises.

Now, certainly, you want to accommodate customer requests whenever reasonably possible. But, when it’s far from reasonable, you need to let the customer or prospect know why and discuss it with him or her.

They might, in fact, prefer from time to time when the situation calls for it, a straightforward “No, Steve, that actually is a problem and let me explain the reasons why.”

Now, you should certainly offer alternative solutions, if there are any, but, it’s one thing to be helpful – it’s quite another to be a ‘doormat’.

When you use good judgment in answering requests from customers and prospects, you earn their respect.