The company that answered

For years, the water heater repair company everyone in Ismailia recommended had one habit. When you called, someone answered.

Not a recorded menu. A person, usually by the second ring, who asked where you lived and told you when the technician would come. He came when they said. If the part was wrong, he came back the next day without being chased.

All of it cost them something. More people on the phones, technicians given time to do the job properly, return visits nobody was billed for. But it built the only thing a repair company really sells, which is the belief that on the first cold morning, when the heater fails, they will be there.

Then, slowly, it changed. A recorded voice with options. Visits booked in windows of a whole day. A technician with a script and no authority to fix anything that was not on the ticket. Each change was sensible on its own. Each saved a little.

Taken together, they turned the company into one more name on the list.

The first to leave are the customers who cared most, the ones who noticed the difference and were glad to pay for it. Those who stay have simply not found anyone better yet.

The bigger loss is inside. The staff who joined to help people now spend their days apologising.

Service is not a lever to pull when it pays and release when it does not. It is a decision about what kind of business you are, and you either keep making it or you stop.