The Repair He Fumbled That Won Her Trust

I want to talk about the time a customer trusted me more because I screwed up in front of her. It was a March morning out past Okarche. Gravel drive, a propane tank along the fence line, the grass still that flat brown it gets before it remembers how to be green. Furnace call. Older couple, retired, the kind of house where everything has a place and the place is labeled. The man met me at the door and watched me the whole way to the unit. Not unfriendly. Just careful. Some people watch you like they're waiting to catch you doing it wrong, because somebody did it wrong to them once. I knelt down at the furnace and I had my socket wrench up on the top of the cabinet where I set my tools. And I knocked it off. It hit the concrete and rang like a bell and skittered up under the water heater where I had to get down on my belly with a flashlight to fish it out, grunting, sixty-three years old, my hat falling off. I came up with the wrench and my face was red and I said: well, that was graceful. And the man laughed. Not a polite laugh. A real one. Something in his shoulders came down two inches. He said: I had a fella out here last year never set a thing down wrong and charged me four hundred dollars for nothing. And from that point on he talked to me like a person. In 1966, three psychologists, Elliot Aronson, Ben Willerman, and Joanne Floyd, ran a study on something they ended up calling the pratfall effect. They had people listen to a recording of someone answering hard quiz questions. In some recordings the person did great, sounded sharp, sounded competent. And at the end of some of those recordings, the competent person clumsily spilled a cup of coffee on himself and said so. You'd think the spill would make people like him less. It did the opposite. Core line: "Because a person who is good at the thing, and also human enough to fumble it, is easier to trust than a person who is just good at the thing." Give Us A Shout Thanks for tuning in to Hartzell's Heat & Air, your trusted HVAC experts in Oklahoma and beyond. From Kingfisher to coast-to-coast consulting, we design, install, and maintain smart, efficient systems that deliver year-round comfort. We're family-run, and powered by 45+ years of experience. Whether it's AI-powered thermostats, geothermal systems, or classic tune-ups, we deliver upfront pricing, expert care, and warranties that back it all up. 🛠️ Book Online:https://book.housecallpro.com/book/Hartzells-Heat--Air/4a569038b3dc460daf2d5f6497b18351?v2=true🌐 www.hartzellsheatair.com📞 (405) 375-4822 🚛 Trane Comfort Specialist • Mitsubishi Diamond Dealer • ClimateMaster Elite🛡️ VIP Comfort Club • Remote Monitoring • Extended Warranties 📲 Follow us for tips, updates, and real-world installs:YouTube: @hartzellsheatair6003X: https://x.com/HartzellsHVACFacebook: facebook.com/hartzellsheatairLinkedIn: Dave Hartzell Built on trust. Backed by warranty. Designed for comfort.