I asked two mechanics the same question today: “My check engine light came on for no apparent reason… everything seems to be working fine… could you do a diagnostic check to see what’s causing it?”
Mechanic #1 quickly said, “For $135 an hour I can. And it’s not as simple as just plugging in a diagnostic device—it could take one to four hours.”
Mechanic #2 said, “Sure. Can you bring it in Friday? It should only take us a few minutes to figure out what’s causing the light to turn on and we can decide how to proceed from there.”
…Guess which mechanic I’m choosing?
Not just for this time around… but for all my future time arounds?
And I bet if I wiped all of Mechanic #1’s car knowledge and he was in the same boat I was in… he’d choose Mechanic #2, too.
When you’re in business… you’re there to do business—I get it.
But, when you treat customers like numbers and not people who would like to be treated just like you would if you were in the same situation… I suspect it won’t be long until there won’t be too many “numbers” left for you to do business with.