I was chatting with a friend the other day who, among other things, is a professional wallpaper installer. A local hotel had contacted her and asked for a bid to redo all the wall coverings in their halls. She knew that her price would be higher than others in town; in fact, she knew that her client was getting competing bids. But as we talked, she thought through what her client was actually paying for.

• She has 25 years of local experience with other hotels in town, all of which can confirm that she is professional, prompt and pleasant to work with. They have seen her show up in the middle of a snow storm or work late at night in order to get a job done as promised. They can vouch for her reliability and commitment to her clients.
• She is friendly, quiet and courteous to hotel guests. She minimizes disruption and treats the hotel’s customers as her own. She has never had a guest complain about noise or inconvenience during her projects.
• She does not advertise; she gets all of her work through word of mouth, so her business model is built around a commitment to providing high-quality work at a fair price and treating all her clients as she would like to be treated. Her business succeeds when her clients are delighted with her work.

She and I reflected that as we become (ahem) chronologically gifted, our value to our clients increases. We know that our most important asset is our reputation, which we have built over decades. Sure, our clients may be able to find someone who does what we do for a lower price, but they can’t find anyone with our track record and personal investment in delighting every client.

What are you doing to build and strengthen your professional reputation in ways your clients value?

See more of my thoughts about Brand You.

[photo “Unique” by Jiří Zralý is licensed under CC BY 2.0]