Some years ago we had a bad case of chinch bugs in our lawn. These bugs attack the grass from the underside, and suck sap from the plants. We had impressive bare patches in the lawn. Over-seeding was not enough, and I was developing a perma-frown about it.
I had no idea what to do, because I had no idea what was causing the magically disappearing lawn. So we called in a lawn care company to diagnose the problem. This was in the "bad" old days before recent legislation banning a host of herbicides and pesticides for residential use. (All still available to farmers......but they are bad for us........let's not go there. As a rule, I don't eat my lawn!)
Greenspace lawncare offered a plan to control the bugs and rehabilitate the badly damaged lawn, and they delivered. Within about two months we went from a patchy lawn in which weeds were taking over the bare spots to a lush green lawn, thick and free of weeds. They marketed themselves as environmentally friendly, even back then, and this was attractive to us. We had resisted this kind of treatment in the past, feeling that most of these companies over-apply the chemicals. So when the season ended we signed up for another season of lawn care.
Annoyingly they called regularly to up-sell additional services. They always expressed concern about something the technician had seen on his last visit. There was always something else that could be done. We declined these services, and were mildly annoyed at the calls, always at supper time. They always warned us about the decision.
Then came the legislation that banned most of the compounds they used. (Not so different from the rest then.......) They sent us information about what they would use instead, and we signed up for one more year. Soon it became clear that they could not deliver anymore, and we canceled the contract at the end of that last season, and started pulling the weeds ourselves, and doing research on how to control them from now on. Clearly three or four visits a year from a lawn care company lost its purpose, and we would have to employ our own elbow grease at much greater frequency.
That is when the fun started. After canceling by phone we received an "authoritative" sounding message on our answering machine from some manager at the company who informed us that he could process the cancellation of the contract once we had called him back to discuss the matter. The message was left with the tone more appropriate for a highschool principal who wants to know why his star athlete is quitting the team.
Seriously?
We made no call, we had called and canceled, process it! We were not informed of any such requirement when we called to cancel.
Since the start of spring this year we have received a bunch more phone calls asking us to justify our decision. The last one (hopefully) was today, they should now understand that we don't want to receive another! The approach is really annoying. They call wanting to know why we canceled. The answer is always the same: because we don't need the service anymore. No we do not care to elaborate, we don't need to give you a reason. We don't want to get trapped in a half hour up-sell spiel about what they can do for us.
In the back of our minds we wondered if they really needed an explanation, never mind a justification. We can't be the first people to have canceled since their treatments became so much less effective, and require so much of our own added energy that they are no longer worth it.
Which brings me to my point. I get it, really I do. I used to be in sales. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Show your customer that you are interested in them. Keep yourself visible to them. Show them what you can do for them.
Up to a point that is.
You don't want to be treating your customer like some errant child that needs to explain their decision, and there is a point where showing interest becomes hounding. And don't pretend you know everything better than us. Do not talk down to us. Do not tell me we are making a mistake, or that we need to justify our actions to you.
The sad thing is that if new environmentally safe methods were developed that would be acceptable under the current legislation, and a lawn care company could once again save us time and effort, we would now not contract with them again, and would call someone else. Their handling of this simple cancellation has turned us off for good. We want to be treated with a little more respect and consideration as the customer.
This squeaky wheel was junked.
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