Photograph / NIGEL PARRYAS WE PRODUCED this issue of
Entrepreneur, an annoying thing
happened: I arrived at work to
find my office door closed and
locked. Blame the overnight
cleaning crew? I don’t know—
but I never lock my door and
don’t even have a key, so this
was a problem. My colleagues
valiantly tried to break in, but it
turns out that editors make for
bad burglars. Ultimately, I had
to find a different way to unlock
the door...and in the process,
I learned an important lesson
about unlocking customers’
trust, too.
But first, picture it: There’s
me, standing around like a doo-
fus, locked out of my own office.
At a loss for what to do, I went
to Yelp, found a bunch of lock-
smiths, and emailed them to
explain the problem and ask for
quotes. Four replied quickly.
The first one simply wrote:
“Price estimate: $29.” Then,
18 minutes later, they followed
up with this promise: “I will
give best price.”
The second wrote: “$125 to
open the door. Just need phone
number and address.”
The third didn’t offer a price.
“Yes, we can help you,” they
wrote instead. “Call us to verify
your address.”
The fourth came from
a guy named Jay Sofer, owner
of Lockbusters, who wrote
me this: “Hi, Jason, thank
you for the detail. Would it
be possible to send me a
quick image of that handle to
make certain I give youan accurate quote? Here is my
direct email address.”
In a matter of minutes, I’d
found what feels like a micro-
cosm of business itself. Here
we had four competitors.
Half competed on price alone.
One wanted my business
but didn’t work for it. And then
there was Jay, the only one
to address me by name, thank
me for my time, or ask for
more information.
I sent Jay a photo of the lock.
He replied, thanked me again,
and explained that the project
could cost between $99 and
$198, depending on whether
they needed to replace the lock’s
core. A few minutes later, he
followed up: “Hi, Jason, some
bad news. My technician is at
our supplier showing them the
image of your lock and we can-
not replace that core!” Then he
described in detail why the job
was complicated and could cost
up to $300.
That’s a full $271 more than
the guy who promised the best
price. So of course, I said yes to
Jay. When he increased his price
up front, he also increased my
trust. I knew what I was getting.
In contrast, I had no idea what
I’d get from his competitors—
but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t
be a $29 bill.
Jay’s colleague arrived to
do the work, and afterward, I
talked to Jay about his business.
He’s no dummy: He knows how
his competitors operate. “Prices
and communication are usually
vague in an effort to overcompli-cate the process,” which leads to
bait-and-switches, he explained.
So in 2008, when he turned to
entrepreneurship after losing
everything in the recession, he
saw an obvious path: “The idea
I had starting Lockbusters was
to position myself as the good
guy,” he says. Trust would be his
competitive advantage.
This is smart, but also...isn’t
it a little crazy? You’d think
everyone would do this. How
can something so basic—so
obvious!—be a competitive
advantage? But the truth is,
too many businesses treat cus-
tomers as transactions: They
just want to win the business,
even if the customer is unhappy
as a result. I have theories on
why they do this; it could be
fear of competition, or just
the way they were taught. But
ultimately, it comes down to a
question of where you find your
joy. Are you in business to serve
others, or to serve yourself?Jay knows his answer. “I enjoy
helping people and consider it a
privilege,” he told me. When you
think that way, your customer
isn’t a transaction. It’s another
person—someone to build a
relationship with, even if it’s a
brief one, and even if it’s about
something as simple as a lock.
Because in any business, in any
industry, relationships are what
it really comes down to.
So what’s the key to unlocking
a consumer’s trust? It’s simple:
When you love your work, and
you love your customers, you’ll
do the kinds of things that make
people love you back.Jason Feifer
[email protected]
@heyfeifer
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Earning Trust
How are you winning a new customer’s business?
The answer says a lot about your business.8 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / March 2020