A brief anecdote.
Yesterday, a salesman from the pest control company Aptive showed up at my door at 6pm. He had come earlier in the day and spoken to my wife—she told him to come back and speak to me at 6.
On the dot, he was back.
6 years ago another pest control company EcoShield knocked on our door. At first interaction, I thought they were a scam. The 20-something who came to my door in a branded polo. He gave me the 30 minute hard sell in-person pitch. He hit all the right points. I was interested, I just needed to confirm they were real.
He noted they don’t really work like that and it was now, or never but I got his number. I knew he was commissioned-based (hence the now, or never.)
Due diligence completed, we signed up.
I never heard from that sales person again, (because he was a college student going door-to-door on Summer vacation,) but we started with EcoShield. They have been fantastic for over 5 years. We have no pest issues, they are amazing with communication, and the price is still right. For a service that kind of just continues to happen as life goes on, I don’t really think about them too much outside of the fact that every time they come, their service technician is respectful, asks the right questions, is helpful. They continue to live up to their promise. I feel like that is becoming more and more rare these days.
Fast forward to yesterday.
A door-to-door salesman shows up and pitches pest control, interior, exterior etc. We walked through the services line item by line item. The salesman knew we had EcoShield. He didn’t try to discredit them, he explained a few differences in services between the two. Annual price was the same.
We spoke for 30 minutes and I kindly let him down, I was sticking with EcoShield.
I explained to him that he was pitch perfect. I believed they would be great for me. He did nothing wrong. The price was right. The service was right. He asked all the right questions about our house and yard. He presented his company positively and proved that they are the #1 rated pest control company in the country. Everything was right. (Even his level of pressure as a door-to-door salesman was tolerable.)
He asked why I wasn’t interested in changing. My answer was simple, EcoShield made a promise to me 6 years ago and have lived up to that promise ever since. The earned my loyalty. I owe them to stay with them. He started some last minute sales tactics to sweeten the deal, my answer was still no. I owe it to EcoShield.
Why I chose loyalty
BBG is a service provider at the end of the day. I am in this guys shoes daily.
We have relationships that we build over time with people and that matters to us. Usually clients stick around because we make a promise and live up to it, while trying to be genuinely helpful to them. This is not personal, I don’t personally love one local advertising agency over another and it’s my life mission to help them succeed (that’s called religion). I personally like the people we work with and want BBG to help them succeed in their job by doing our job. That’s what they pay us for. That’s why they hire us. That was our promise to them.
However, since in the past 36 months—that isn’t enough.
We have great relationships, live up to our promise trying as hard as we can to go above and beyond—however still lose accounts. Why? Loyalty. Internal processes in the design industry rarely take into consideration that someone has been doing a great job with their team for years helping them accomplish goals. It also doesn’t allow for partners with work with to speak up in the process.
When we pour our hearts and soul into client work, again… it’s not personal. We genuinely want to help our clients succeed, but when they go because an internal review happens, or new services pull our current work away into a new relationship it hurts us. “It’s just business and we can’t do anything, our hands our tied.”
I don’t think so. I fight for the people who do good by me. I think loyalty matters when people show up. I think loyalty matters when people live up to their promise. I will fight for loyalty. We should do that more.
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Related to 2025:
I know and understand that internally, no one wants to stick their head out in a time when jobs are precious, and cuts are happening all around, but we should.
