Photos and Names ... Please

I was on Twitter the other night and read a posting by a real locksmith who used a 'mug shot' in the profile.   There was a web address too and I just had to follow it.  Not a face to be seen and not a personal name either.  It was 'family owned' but so is every mafia front company.

We all know how this goes.  A company really only exists because of the people within it.  We do the work and the company pays us. Simple really. What sort of company does not name the owners or staff?  Think of it a bit.

One type is where there are so many it is impossible to keep up and where each is so interchangeable with the next it matters little who each person really is.  Or it is just so large it is hard to know where to start.  You know these companies by reputation and you may not get a GREAT product but you know where to find some level of manager.  In this group think of MacDonalds or IBM. Such web sites do not have staff often but have locations and detailed phone numbers. 

Another type of company has no pride in its service and no interest in you as a customer.  You are as replaceable as the crowd at the midway.  Next week its a new city and the carny who never cared before is seeing new suckers now.  In the locksmith trade, these are the call centre operations.  You can not find who they are since they have no interest in that.  You can only see one phone number and it is for booking a job only. 

And I keep hearing questions on how to fight back.  How do you keep shady operations from undercutting you with poorly trained staff doing shoddy work?  Of course they charge less for less.

Locksmith fight back by setting up web pages which show you are in this for the long haul.  You give an address and your names.  You show photos of your people.  You show the training of your staff.  I am a Certified Journeyman Locksmith (CJL) in my province. Spill folks.  If you bought a business licence, toss up a scan of it.  Show the ALOA registration card for the last conference.

And stop letting government off the hook.  If they have regulations for business licenses and criminal record check for locksmiths, ask they get some enforcement. Often they will say they wait for consumer complaints. Easy answer but nothing stops governments from protecting the consumer before many get ripped off.

And lets also be real here.  In the end people do business with people -- even if the money sometimes flows from company to company.  When you answer the phone you say your name.  When you pass out a business card, you say your name.  The call centres can never do this since they are not in your city.

So ... are you going to have your name and photo on your web pages or not?  It's your reputation. It's one more chance to differentiate yourself from the rogue elements.

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Laux Myth ... Thoughts From a Locksmith
By MartinB, Found @ http://lauxmyth.blogspot.com/