No Harm, No Foul?

I don’t know how much I agree with this statement, and I’m not sure where it originated.  I would assume that it came about as a result of ‘overlooked’ infractions on the basketball courts.

This statement can be applied in a variety of situations.  For example, someone ‘bumps’ your car in the parking lot and there is no visible damage.  “No harm, no foul.” Someone accidentally runs their grocery cart up on your heels without causing injury.  “No harm, no foul.”  Someone doesn’t do exactly what they told you they would, with no visible damage.  “No harm, no foul.”  Right?  Wrong!

When it comes to interacting with customers, I don’t believe this statement can be applied.  In fact, if there is even the suspicion of ‘foul play’ then you can bet there will be harm associated with it.  

What I’m referring to are those details that you or your staff, tend to overlook because to YOU, they aren’t a big deal. What doesn’t seem very important to you can be of major significance to your customer. The manner in which you address the issue can affect the long-term relationship with that customer.

If you are unaware of what “fouls” may be occurring, then you need to spend more time in the field.  When there is a problem, you might not hear about it from the customer.  What happens is you never hear from that customer EVER AGAIN!


How many times have you had a customer voice a concern about what seemed to be a trivial issue? If you’ve used the ‘no harm, no foul’ approach, have you ever had that same customer start to pick apart the job on even more trivial issues?

Chances are if the original issue had been dealt with in a timely fashion, the other issues would not have even come up. As a result, the job is now subject to an entirely new level of scrutiny.


John L. Lloyd has been involved with HVAC for the past 30 years in a variety of positions, has presented programs and seminars for groups both in and out of this industry, and has an honest passion for our industry to become the best it can possibly be.  John can be reached at jlloyd@prudentialhvac.com