Four Ways to Fail Your Customers
It’s a fact that electronic systems live longer and are more reliable when they’re protected against power surges and spikes. As an integrator, if you fail to include Surge Protection Devices on new system installs, you could be failing your customers by not providing them with your best quality of service.
If any of the four reasons listed below sounds like something you might say, you need to keep reading. For each one, we are adding some useful information that will help you provide the best guidance and service possible – and keep your customers coming back to you and recommending you to others.
- “If I add something that’s not in the bill of materials, I’ll lose the bid.”
In this case, the customer is, knowingly or unknowingly, already proceeding with a planned system that is vulnerable to electrical surge damage. As an educated integrator or installer, you already know that including surge protection would be better for the customer – but you are in competition for the business. To make the sale, bid the BOM as before, but add in an optional protection upgrade. If you have the chance to present to the customer or otherwise educate them about the benefits of surge protection, that would be a win-win for all parties, and they will start to look to you as a true expert in your field.
- “I don’t know enough about surge protection.”
With all the useful educational material available online, you can quickly get up to speed on the basics – then let us do the rest. When you have a project in mind, our expert support team will help you choose the best surge protection devices for your installation.
- “The customer won’t want the extra cost.”
Customers may not be aware how common power surges are or the damage they can cause to every sensitive electronic system. With a full awareness, many would be receptive to the small additional cost of protection – usually less than the sales tax on their system – to prevent the high potential costs of repair, replacement, and operational interruptions. Integrators are in the best position to act as a sales consultant on this matter, educating the customer and installing a better system that will meet their needs more reliably.
- “We don’t get much lightning around here.”
Locations with frequent lightning strikes are particularly aware of that dramatic source of powerful surges. But there are many other more common sources of power surges and spikes that generate smaller disruptions every day – some are even generated within a typical building by motors and pumps such as those found in HVAC systems. The chances are very high that your customers are experiencing smaller, unnoticed surges every day that are shortening the life of their sensitive electronic systems and decreasing their reliability. Adding surge protection to their systems would protect them from this damage.
You know that integration and installation are demanding and highly competitive businesses. You also know that callbacks for malfunctioning or nonfunctioning systems are a serious problem for customer satisfaction, particularly when customers have not included SPDs and unfairly blame the installers.
There is a simple solution: propose surge protection on every installation. Preventing system damage increases customer satisfaction, decreases maintenance costs – and is ideal for making service contracts more profitable too. Let us help!
