So the premium company wrote back, and their reply told me everything about how they see the world.
Their position was simple. Here is our service brochure, here is the list of what we did, now pay the invoice. We delivered what we promised, so settle up.
And on the face of it, that sounds fair, does it not? They had a document, they had a list, they ticked the boxes.
So where is the problem?
Reality. And it did not care about their brochure. I had asked for one specific thing, it had not been done, and I was already paying another company to put it right. I even proved it, the job they swore needed dismantling, done by one man on a stepladder in twenty minutes.
So they tried again, offering a token discount to make it all go away. I showed them it did not come close to covering what I was out of pocket, or the work they never delivered.
I had them cornered, but it was not about checkmate, and I wanted them to know I was not out to squeeze them. So I offered to pay the fair balance, on top of what I was already spending to get the job finished properly. Their management agreed, and I paid it within five minutes.
So who cares, and why am I telling you this?
Because instead of building a ladder to grow, they were laying themselves a stone ceiling to crack their heads on. And crack it they will. They squeeze the most profit out of every sale, then move on to the next, over and over.
So what is wrong with that? You want to be profitable, right? It is a business, not a charity. And those long term relationships you preach about are lovely, but in the meantime there are mouths to feed and a roof to keep over your children’s heads.
So am I being idealistic? Well, let me ask you this.
What will put more money in your pocket?
Is it winning a customer and building a relationship that keeps them buying and sending others your way?
Or is it squeezing that customer for every last bit of profit on one deal, and banking on a new sucker being born every minute to replace the one who is never coming back, and whose complaints, you tell yourself, nobody will listen to anyway?
Now where do these AC guys fall? Did they agree because I was reasonable, or because I had the proof? Were the technicians fighting to win the transaction, until the owner stepped in because he could see the bigger picture?
I will let you sit with that one. There is a lot to unpack there about stepping back and trusting your business to deliver to your standards even when you are not in the room. But that is not what this post is about, and it is something I cover in depth in End Burnout, Fall in Love with Your Business.
This post is about a principle that growth companies embrace and stagnant ones ignore.
The purpose of a transaction is not to win a sale, but to win a customer.
It is the difference between collecting a single payday with little else to show for it, and building an asset that pays you again and again, and hands you a far bigger payday on the day you sell.
You see, that first AC cleaning at my flat was never a one off, black and white transaction. It was a first date. My three units need servicing every ninety days, like clockwork, for as long as I live in that flat. Handled well, that one booking was years of repeat work, the kind they would never spend a single dollar to win again. Handled badly, it became a three part post like this one, a blemish on their star rating, and word of mouth that quietly forces their advertising to work far harder and cost far more.
And this is what the transaction-maximisers never see. They win the crumb and lose the cake. Then they burn a fortune chasing strangers to replace the very customers they just drove away, and do it all over again, piling on the stress with every round.
The businesses that actually grow do the opposite. They treat the first job as the start of a relationship, because every job after it is pure profit, won at no cost at all.
So who is being naïve now?
Win the transaction, or win the relationship. You cannot do both by hiding behind your fine print.
So stop fighting over crumbs. Bake a bigger cake, together.
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P.S. Recurring revenue, the kind that grows out of relationships rather than one-off transactions, is one of the things a buyer will pay the most for. If you want to see how yours stacks up on the four drivers that set your price, the Buyer’s Verdict will show you. Take it here.