CRAZY Things Customers Do (and how to handle them)

Customers are absolutely crazy. And when they're inside their own home, they do even crazier things. And as roofing sales professionals, we experience the inner crazy of every customer who would never even reveal how crazy they are if they had to go into public to communicate with others. But these experiences fall on our plate. They make for good stories or they make for the absolute worst or hardest days. You know the type, the customer that calls. And the minute you see them on caller id, your heart sinks and you're like, hey, Peggy, thanks for calling. And you kind of just put the smile on and go through the act. But at the end of the day, you know, man, they really beat me down. So in this video, which you inspired, we're going to take a little bit of a break from our normally scheduled programming, going through sales strategies and sales tactics. And we're going to have some fun as we break down the five crazy things that customers do with a story and a Persona that matches a customer I'm guessing you've had. But the real takeaway here, besides some entertainment, is to learn how to cope with these we weird scenarios so you can maintain really incredibly high service, create an amazing experience, or transform bad experiences into great experiences. Because at the end of the day, we are truly in the service business and it's up to how you treat your customers. The experience they have with you, that's going to make or break whether or not you get referrals. So let's get started, shall we? First, quick welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do here on this channel and on my podcast is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. There's links to the various products and programs I have available, along with some freebies in the description below. Now let's get to it. The first Persona. Have you heard of one? A lawn Chair Larry? I first met Lawn Chair Larry back in about my third year of roofing sales. It was a phone call inbound lead to the office tree falls on this guy's house. It was a mobile home park and when I pulled out, I was bummed that I drove two hours for a really tiny project that I didn't even know if we could take. And. And we worked our magic. We turned this tree claim into a full roof replacement and I thought this customer was going to love us. But Lawn Chair Larry showed up on install day, the owner of the house who decided that it was his responsibility to park his lawn chair out front, park his butt in it, and then become the foreman as the construction expert, managing and observing his own project. Have you had a customer like this? Yeah. Well, you know what? At the end of the day, Lawn Chair Larry just really wants to feel important. He wants to feel special. And he wants you to know that he knows what he knows. So you do a good job. And the best way to deal with Lawn Chair Larry is to simply reinforce his desire to get a quality project done and let him know that if anything comes up to give you a buzz and you put Lawn Chair Larry at ease. And believe me, it'll make your whole job easier even if he doesn't leave the lawn chair. Next we have the one of my least favorite customers, and this is the Nervous Nellie. The Nervous Nellie. I first met the Nervous Nellie on a project I didn't even want. When Nervous Nellie called in for a re inspect on the roof, that got denied. I even told the adjuster, there's nothing here. Well, guess what? The adjuster needed to get this roof approved, paid for, and I got stuck working with Nervous Nellie. Nervous Nellie called me about every one to two hours on the day of install. Nervous Nellie would ring and I'd hear the phone or I'd answer the phone and he'd say, hey, Adam, the crew is loading the roof with material as they're tearing it off. Don't they need it all torn off first? And I said, Nervous Nellie, no need to worry about. The crew knows what they're doing. We're bringing material up as we're tearing it off. So we can do parts of your house in order in case any severe weather comes. We want to work through those sections one at a time. Leave this with us. We do this every day. And then Nervous Nelly calls back because of the debris falling in a certain area. And then Nervous Nelly calls back and every time that phone would ring, I was like, it's Nervous Nellie again. What am I going to do? And as Bill Sansom told me, the gentleman I interviewed on the channel, by the way, who did 2.2 million in one neighborhood, his very first year in roofing sales. Using the sales, he says to me, adam, you got to check up from the neck up. I know it's a saying in the cars, excuse me, in the auto industry, in the sales business in general. Check up from the neck up before you pick up. And I would always do that and kill him. Kill Nervous Nellie with kindness to ease it over. Alright then, number three, we have Delusional Dan. Have you ever worked with the delusional Dan. Delusional Dan. I met him in court after Delusional Dan told us that we damaged his gutter. But what Delusional Dan didn't realize is he had a before picture of his property with a description of the gutter damage that he in fact autographed, saying, yes, this is the condition of my home, but after the fact, Delusional Dan's sleazeball attorney said those pictures are doctored. So the delusional Dan that you maybe dealt with or soon will is the person that notices something that wasn't there. The classic you touched at last syndrome. You know, my roof deck didn't sway until you put those new shingles on. Well, that's not how it works. That crack wasn't there in my driveway until your cruise trailer was there, was it? I don't know. Delusional Dan seems to find something because they think you touched it last and you broke it. You know the type. Now, with these folks, I gotta tell you, there's really not an easy way to deal with this when they generally believe that you messed up their home. So my best advice for you is to document the condition of the house before the project, including photos of the driveway for any cracks or oil stains. Take pictures of every elevation. So you have your file and what I call the U Haul inspection, where you walk the property with the homeowner and indicate what's already damaged on the home and positioning it in a way saying, hey, that way, if we mess it up, we take responsibility and get it fixed. All right, on to number four. Number four might be a familiar name to you. We have Pissed Peggy. Pissed Peggy is the one that calls not with questions, not with concerns, but just downright angry. She could also be called the negative Nancy of the bunch. The person who, no matter what you do, has something wrong with it. So my most memorable experience with Pissed Peggy was the woman who we got her very marginally damaged roof approved when she desperately needed a new roof. And once we got into it, realized it required redecking, we invoiced the insurance carrier, got everything covered, and this lovely woman just received a brand new roof. We went to bat for her to flip this retail opportunity into an insurance deal and save her thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. Until one day, Pissed Peggy calls me and she says, adam, I am looking at the insurance paperwork and on the estimate it says half inch CDX. But what I see in my driveway is 3.8osb. And I called Lowe's and the price difference, and she had the dollar for dollar difference between OSB and half inch cdx. She calculated the difference and wanted me to write her a check because of the difference. Can you believe that? Now, I laughed with her a little bit. Okay, that's a lie. I didn't laugh. I wanted to laugh. And in fact, I don't want to laugh with her. I wanted to laugh at her. Because what I said is, hey, listen, I'm happy to cut the difference if you'd like to. I can return this. If you'd like to go to Home Depot and pick up, you know, the 60 sheets that we're going to need. Does Home Depot deliver? No. And I had to explain the fact that our supplier carries OSB and that it's delivered to the property because the reality is Home Depot is not delivering those sheets. And that's just how it works in the roofing business. You and I both know we don't pay less when we're getting from our supplier. Alright, so that's piss. Peggy, the person, no matter how good a job you do, they're upset about something. And you know, with these folks, I have found the one thing to ease them and it's not a popular opinion, but you just got to use logic and help them to understand the situation as it is. And then take the emotional component of your connection and desire to make it right, to say, hey, you know, we really want to make this right for you. How can we do it? All right, this leads us to number five is Talkative Terry. Talkative Terry is the customer that won't do business with you until you have a beer with him. I had a gentleman like this. And when I tried to peel away from that conversation, I heard about what his cousin was doing that day, where his daughter went to school, what his hobby was in high school. I learned about the car in his garage and the bad experience he had in the return center at Walmart. Talkative Terry won't let you go. So my last tip to wrap up Talkative Terry and what you can do to deal with these kinds of people is to simply acknowledge that, to find that one moment in the conversation. And then I was at Walmart and the checkout line was wild. And then when you have that moment to jump in, say, man, that sounds like a total nightmare. I'm glad you got that taken care of. Hey, I don't want to keep you all day. I have an appointment coming up and I got a scoot. And again, giving yourself that little interjection acknowledging what's been going on to give it a wrap, mentioning something specific about what they're doing and then making it that you don't want to keep them. Hey, I'm sure I could chat with you all day. I don't want to keep you. And I've got this appointment coming up. And again, you offload. Instead of saying, I want to get the heck out of this conversation, you're burning my time. We make it all about them. So there you have it. The five crazy things that customers do. Lawn Chair Larry, Nervous Nelly, Delusional Dan, Piss Peggy, and Talkative Terry. And how you can overcome these situations and still give an amazing customer experience. Hey listen, this was a new video. If you liked it, give it a thumbs up. If you didn't, give it a thumbs down. That way I know whether you like to see this content or not. And if I missed one of the crazy things customers do, think up a name, drop it in the comments section below. We'll all have a chuckle, I'm sure. Hey, thanks for joining me today. And if you want more videos, pop in right here to download your free copy of my pitch Like a Pro Roofing Sales Training Video Library. Or click right here to watch this video that YouTube thinks you're really going to love. We'll see you soon.