Making Tough Decisions

I went to see Anna, my haircutter again this week. Last time I went to see her I blogged about how I think she should raise her prices.

This time, we had another discussion that I found very interesting.

Anna, in addition to cutting hair, also sings in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. We were talking about her upcoming gigs and she mentioned that she'd been offered a chance to do a gig in Japan. The gig would be a couple of nights in Tokyo, with all travel and accommodations provided for free.

Anna said no to the gig.

Her reason for saying no was pretty straightforward - she already has a 3-week vacation booked and the Japan gig would have come pretty much immediately after that. She's going (home) to England for the 3 weeks, so she'd basically be flying from London to Toronto, spend a day in Toronto, then jump on a plane again for Tokyo. Jetlag would be a bit nasty, but her biggest concern is that she'd be away from her customers for nearly a month and she was concerned that she'd lose them.

I told her she was crazy. If someone offers me a free trip to Tokyo (even if it's only for 2 days), there's no way I'm saying no!

I pointed out that she has two kinds of customers - ones who come specifically to see her, and ones that just want an open chair. The ones in the second group are unreliable and unpredictable and she can't spend her time worrying about them. The ones in the first group are the good customers, since they're coming to see her specifically. Those customers aren't going to leave her because she took an extra week off. 

If they're already dissatisfied with her service and thinking of leaving, then this might push them over the edge, but that's not the extra week that's causing the problem, it's something else.

Her regulars are happy with her work and they don't care if she takes an extra week off. Haircuts aren't something you need every week anyway, so at most someone might be inconvenienced for one of the 6-8 cuts they get from her each year. Hardly a case of bad customer service. After 14 years of having her cut my hair, I'm certainly not going to leave over this.

Of course, once Anna realized this she was kicking herself for turning down the gig.

It's a tough decision, though, and one of those tough decisions that have to be made quickly so there isn't time to poll the client base and gauge their reaction. That kind of decision comes up from time to time in every business, and they're always tricky. There's no easy way out, but if you understand your customers, then you're usually pretty safe following your gut. Anna's gut was telling her to take the gig, but she second guessed herself and now she's regretting it.

I've done the same thing in the past and learned the hard way to trust my gut.

What about you? Do you trust your gut when you're making tough decisions or do you try to base your decision squarely on the facts?

Let me know your thoughts....