Of smartphones and disposers
Let your customers know about advanced products coming into the market.
David MacNair is InSinkErator’s vice president of global marketing and strategic development.
Photo credit: InSinkErator
Whether it’s the latest technology or a backed-up sink, there will always be a need for competent service providers. Careful, prompt, courteous service delivered professionally will always be in demand.
Contractors also are hired for their wealth of knowledge about all things plumbed, if you can put it that way. I contend that homeowners expect their contractor to be up on the latest plumbing fixtures and technological advances for the household plumbing system, much as I would expect that when I walk into a cell phone store, the associate I talk to better know about that new Android Moto X phone I just heard about.
And he had better be equipped to tell me not only how it works, but how it’s different from my second-generation iPhone and why I may want a new one. If after that he recommends a specific smartphone brand, I will be more inclined to seriously consider that brand — and I’ll more likely return to that store in the future.
To a homeowner, nothing is as powerful as a recommendation from a knowledgeable service provider, i.e., a contractor. Several years ago when we introduced the Evolution PRO Series, I heard a story about a homeowner who needed no convincing after she asked her plumber if PRO Excel had a good grind mechanism. He responded, “Ma’am, this thing will chew up a car bumper without a hiccup.” (A pitch of such stunning simplicity requires nothing more.)
Similar to the phone analogy, your customers would be rightfully disappointed to find out after the fact that a line of advanced disposers is on the market that you never told them about. The differences between them are pretty major, yet easily explained.
Standard disposers, with a single grind stage, can’t handle all types of food waste. They can clog and jam when overloaded or used improperly. In contrast, advanced disposers with multiple grind stages mean that a user can erase the mental list they carry around about what can or can’t be put into the disposer. Jams and clogs are largely a thing of the past.
Did I mention that Ihate noise? Consumer research tells us that disposer noise is a big deal to your customers. And while advanced grinding is something they can’t see or hear, quietness is instantly perceived by a disposer user the first time it is turned on, much like the first time you held a smartphone — you knew it was vastly different from what you’d been using.
Sure, it’s efficient to replace like-for-like. You can be in and out fast and on to the next job. The homeowner may never know that advanced technology exists, much less that new PRO Series models are available to buy through a plumbing pro, with longer warranties and more features. But wouldn’t it be nice to add, “He told me something I’d have never known about!” to the list of features you are undoubtedly already known for: careful, prompt, courteous and professional.
(By the way, check out our iPad app if you want to give an on-site demonstration when you’re out on an appointment. Ask your sales rep for more information.)
About the author: David MacNair is InSinkErator’s vice president of global marketing and strategic development. A marketing veteran of 25 years, he led the company’s biggest product launch in decades, bringing to market the Evolution Series and the Evolution PRO Series. He followed it up in summer 2013 by introducing the new PRO Series.
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