NEWS RELEASE
September 2015

Would your business service underwhelm
"The Undercover Client?"

[ Erie PA ] When Investigative journalist Andrea Reynolds hires businesses and professionals she hands them her business card for her business, The Undercover Client, and tells them she plans to write about how they treat her and how they perform on the job.

What mystifies and disturbs her is how poorly she is treated and how inferior the work is, even after warning that their work will be scrutinized and documented in writing and photos.

Reynolds owns several businesses and is also the author of dozens of how-to books including
JumpStart Your Creative Genius and OutSmarting Sweetheart Swindlers. She combines her skills as a former public relations consultant and business protocol expert, with the observation skills of a trained investigative journalist.

She has paid chiropractors, dentists, electricians, plumbers, contractors, handymen, accountants, lawyers, appliance repairmen, realtors... and has had only a very few happy experiences, some average experiences, but far too many disappointing experiences in which she was unjustifiably overcharged and had to fire them.

Influenced by the TV show,
Undercover Boss, and Mike Holmes ("Make it Right"), Reynolds wants to work with practitioners and service business owners showing them how to do right by their clients and patients. She wants to raise the level of businesses' care and attention to detail, not only in workmanship, but also in how patients and clients are treated. She has been especially troubled by how single, older women are treated.

What would she say about your treatment of clients or patients?

In the spring, Reynolds will launch a road trip as a peripatetic consultant, meeting with practitioners all over the United States and Canada, and speaking to associations, colleges and conferences. And if she lands in your town you may have an opportunity to pick her brain over lunch.

The Undercover Client (Andrea Reynolds) can be reached through her website,
www.TheUndercoverClient.com.


If you provide a service, ask yourself these 12 questions:

1. Do I sometimes (or often) treat my staff/employees with disrespect and lack of appreciation?

2. Do I give orders to my patients or clients without identifying or explaining options to them?

3. Are any of my patients, clients or staff waiting for an apology from me?

4. Do I need to refund payments to some of my patients or clients for work I did poorly or didn't finish?

5. Am I more concerned about my bottom line than I am about serving my patients and clients well?

6. If I really think about it, do I lack the competency to do my work to the level of excellence my clients and patients expect from me?

7. Do I really hear my clients and patients, or do I ignore their needs just to get the job done and move on to the next job?

8. Have I knowingly done sloppy work for an older person or single female, because I know he/she won't dispute the word of a professional like me?

9. Have I knowingly charged a senior or woman far more than I would charge a man for the very same service?

10. Have I knowingly told a client or patient that more repairs or work were needed than was true?

11. If I had hired someone just like me to perform the work I do, would I be pleased or displeased with the work I paid for?

12. If my patients/clients issued me a report card would they give me a passing grade, a failing grade... or a gold star?

(270 words) Copyright Andrea Reynolds, 2015.


Andrea's blog post on 12
Self-Defeating Behaviors she personally experienced.

These are not past clients of mine, but they should consider hiring me or booking me to speak to their organization or meeting:


1. A real estate agent who tinkled in the toilet, and flushed, during her return phone call. I could hear it all. (Erie PA)

2. A
bank manager who refused to let me open an account because she felt anyone from out of town must be a drug dealer. (Girard PA)

3. A
physician who left for lunch while I was left waiting in the reception area. He walked out right in front of me. (Toronto)

4. A
physician who charged me $45 to take my blood pressure and when I asked for an explanation of the charge, he added another $25 charge to my bill... twice. (Girard PA)

5. A
lawyer I retained who failed to show up in court and instead sent his administrative assistant who had never been in a courtroom and who had to ask opposing counsel what she should do next. (Toronto)

6. An
RV dealer who refused to show me the inside of any RV - 3 different attempts - despite the $10,000 check for a deposit in my pocket. (Erie PA)

7. A
dentist who was more interested in providing expensive cosmetic dentistry than finding the cause of my severe mouth pain. (Fairview PA)

8. A
veterinarian who required that I sign a full page release absolving the practice of all blame if anything went wrong with their treatment, but wouldn't let me have a copy of it. (Fairview PA)

9. Eight out of 9
lawyers who never returned my phone call when I tried to hire each one. One of the firms advertised his services on television to generate new business. That advertising was a waste of his money. (Erie PA)

10. A
cashier at a doctor's office made me pay an additional 66% over the doctor's handwritten invoice amount before she would allow me to leave the office. (Erie PA)

11. A
real estate agent who showed me only $40,000 homes - many were damaged and in dangerous neighborhoods - when I said I had $40,000 cash for a down payment. (Erie PA)

12. A
landlord who refused to provide an affordable, non-toxic solution for a wet basement floor, but had money to put into new flooring in the empty unit next door. (Erie PA)


There are more... If you want to know the details, order my future book or
hire me to speak to your organization... I'll spill the beans.

Please note: I give everyone at least one opportunity, sometimes several opportunities, to make things right. I'm always astonished at how many professionals, when confronted with the evidence, choose to do nothing... or get angry.