Greetings Peter ...
it’s always a pleasure to discuss things with you ...
yes ... but my point is that for SMALL businesses, SHORT TERM is often enough to sink the ship ...
Did any of those customers realize their mistake and come back to ask for your services?
absolutely - usually when two out of three of their fry vats were out of commission - and the third was starting to act up ... after Bozo Repair Services had tried and failed a few times to get things fixed, I’d start getting calls from the same old customers - but with NO complaints about my prices this time around ...
a key point is that my former restaurant equipment repair business was small (“agile” is the current buzzword I think) - and I had very low overhead expenses ... if there had been a payroll to meet, etc. things could have been a much different matter ... and I think that’s one of the main points being made in this thread ... (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) ...
specifically, the basic idea is that some of the small “quality” automation shops are being “squeezed out” of the market by shoddy competitors who are low-balling the available work ...
... sure we must often wait 6 months or a year but we often get the sale eventually. Your point is valid if that sales makes all the difference between survival and failure.
I think we’re on the same page here ... and I think that companies like yours (which are large enough to roll with the punches) are indeed fortunate ... some smaller companies can’t wait around until enough customers come to their senses ... if “automation work” is the only way they have of supporting their families, then things get really scary once business slows down ...
anyway ... my current business runs into the same types of issues being discussed here in this thread ... the “Sympathy Button” that I added to my website home page sums up a lot of my own opinions about this subject ... I doubt that the same method outlined there would work for most “automation integrator” shops, etc. - but anyone is welcome to take a look at my personal approach to handling the problem ... and there is more information along the same lines in the “Question and Answer” section ...
I’ll close with this ...
years ago I heard a tech school student make this remark to an instructor - about a fellow student: “Sure Little Johnnie is cheating on the tests - but he’s really only hurting himself.”
the instructor (a friend of mine) went ballistic - and made the following points [expletives deleted]:
so Little Johnnie cheats - and makes a passing grade on the test ... how does THAT “cheat” Little Johnnie? ...
so Little Johnnie cheats on enough tests to get a diploma ... how does THAT “cheat” Little Johnnie? ...
so Little Johnnie’s diploma helps him land a job ... how does THAT “cheat” Little Johnnie? ...
so Little Johnnie’s new employer now has a useless employee - instead of a student who actually learned the material ... how does THAT “cheat” Little Johnnie? ...
[and so on] ...
the old idea that “cheating only cheats the cheater” is a line straight out of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood - where EVERYBODY is a “winner” and NOBODY is a “loser” ... the real world is a far different place ...
anyway - that was the way my friend nailed it down ...