After much tinkering — four or five weeks’ worth, in fact — my husband finally broke down and called someone to come and fix our temperamental garage door. As first-time homeowners, and having only lived in our home a short amount of time, this was our first adventure in garage door repair. So, we did what we always do when we need to hire a service company: We solicited recommendations from friends and family and browsed the Better Business Bureau’s website.
We called our company of choice on Sunday night not expecting to reach anyone. To our surprise, we got a living, breathing person on the other end of the line. By 2 p.m. Monday, the repairman was at our home and working on the garage door.
When I got home that Monday evening, I found that the repairman had stapled his business card to the garage wall just above the door opener. Within a matter of seconds I had a wildly mixed batch of feelings about this action: “How dare he staple something to our wall?” “Hey, that’s great — now we have his number.” “That’s rather presumptuous of him to think we’ll call him again the next time we need a repair.” “What a good idea! We’ll never lose this business card.”
Six days after our minor garage door repair, one of the springs in the door bit the dust. I guess you already know who we called. The genius of this repairman’s idea was revealed loud and clear as we stood in the garage assessing the damage. We didn’t have to go anywhere to find his business card; his number was right there, like a good friend ready to help whenever trouble finds you.
I can’t stop thinking about how this simple act — one that stopped me in my tracks — was one of the best guerilla marketing tactics I’ve seen. This company’s repairman took a risk by stapling his contact information to my garage wall, but I appreciated the unspoken request to please call them again should we ever need garage door services in the future.
What do you think — Is this move too bold or genius?
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