The Renegade Writer Blog

This is a guest post by Pat Curry, who teaches our e-course on writing for trade magazines. Next session starts January 11!

I took my daughter’s car in today to Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed, largely because we had a $3 coupon. It was a $32.99 service. I walked out having paid $76, singing their praises and promising them referrals. Here is why:

They treated us with the utmost respect.

They did an inspection of the car, noted items that were recommended by the manufacturer at our mileage, and let us decide what to purchase or not purchase.

They were incredibly fast.

They had fresh coffee and that morning’s newspaper in the waiting room — and pointed that out to us.

They gave us a premium. Anytime in the next three months, we can go into any Jiffy Lube and get the fluids topped off — and the interior vacuumed — for free.

They didn’t recommend things we didn’t need (we thought we needed new wiper blades — we didn’t).

They found the $3 coupon in the back seat, pulled it out, and scanned it in for us without asking — and pointed that out to us.

They vacuumed out the car.

It was raining when we left, so instead of pulling the car out of the garage, they left it inside, opened the doors for us, and pointed out obstacles in the garage that might be tripping hazards as we walked to the car.

They thanked us repeatedly for our business.

When we got in the car, I said, “Wow. They really plan on being in business for a long time.” My daughter, who is 23, said she’d be happy to get her oil changed at Jiffy Lube for the rest of her life.

As entrepreneurs who benefit greatly from repeat business, what can we learn from this? Here are some of my take-aways from the experience:

Stay in touch. We went to Jiffy Lube because we got a coupon in the mail. I’m not sure I want to offer coupons, but I do think it’s important to keep our names in front of our clients with regular notes between assignments. It could be a study or a press release that you think might interest them.

Keep the place clean and inviting. For writers, this translates into clean copy. No typos, no weird formatting, and stories that meet their pub’s style requirements.

Be considerate of their time. I thought we’d be sitting there for quite a while, especially after we added a tire rotation to the list of tasks to be done, but we were in and out of there very quickly. If you can get a story done early and get it crossed off your editor’s plate, by all means, do it. The added perk of this is that the sooner you turn a story in, the sooner you’ll get paid (most of the time).

Tell your clients about the extras you do for them, like Jiffy Lube did with the fresh coffee and newspaper, and finding our coupon! You do excellent work for your clients, and you probably do some extras that other writers don’t. Make sure they know about it.

Offer add-ons. I could get all kinds of stuff done at Jiffy Lube beyond an oil change — and I did, enough to more than double my original bill. We can do that, too. For us, maybe it’s blog posts or podcasts or trade show coverage or copy editing.

Point out the tripping hazards. Some assignments are just bears. Some sources are nightmares. Don’t leave your editors in the dark about problems.

Thank them for their business. This should be a standard part of every assignment you turn in.

Anyone else know of some successful business practices that could translate well into freelance writing? [Pat Curry]