October 15, 2022

Fences

There are a lot of fences in my neighborhood.

Most of them have a little sign nailed right to them indicating the name of the company that built the fence, along with their phone number or other contact information.

So here’s a question:

Why would a fence company do this?

The quick answer is:

“DUH! It’s free advertising!”

But is it?

What if the fence is old and hasn’t been maintained and looks like crap?

I guess it’s still “free advertising,” but is it good advertising?

Personally, my reaction to seeing a broken down fence with the builder’s name on it is:

“This company builds fences that don’t stand the test of time! I’m not going to hire them!”

Fences don’t last forever so my reaction might not be 100% fair to the fence company, but it did get me thinking...

If I was running a fence company AND I was in the habit of plastering my name on my work, THEN it would be in my best interest to cruise past my old jobs, and make sure my work still looked good!

I feel like this is an obviously smart thing to do, but how many fence companies do this?

None that I know of in my area, at least.

Why not knock on the door of a past customer and say, “Hey, I noticed that that fence we made for you ten years ago could use some maintenance... could I give you a quote for how much it would be to make it look like new?”

Even if the home had changed hands, it’s hard for me to imagine someone rejecting this offer.

Here’s the thing...

If you build stuff for your clients, why not make it a standard operating procedure to regularly check back in on old jobs to see if they might be in need of maintenance?

After all, it’s a lot easier to sell stuff to old clients than it is to find new ones.

Yours,

—J