Sales tip: Use Facebook to catch your "skips"

June 19, 2013
Friending your customers "pays" when they skip town with a bill.

Not long ago, I had a situation with a 20-something customer. This man was a customer of mine for nearly a year before he decided to stop paying for a toolbox that he owed $2400 on. Then, he left the shop and skipped town too. 

It wasn't hard to find him on Facebook, though. He had plenty of pictures. 

One picture in particular on his Facebook page was a picture of his truck in front of a house, on which I could see the address. There was also a picture of his girlfriend, along with her name. I searched the girlfriend's name in Google and found an address that matched the numbers on the house.

My law-enforcement friend then went to an auto parts store near the guy's house and learned where the guy was working. When he called the guy at work and told him he had to return my toolbox, the guy listened and returned the toolbox.

Facebook does have security settings where you can set who is able to view your profile. The good news for mobile distributors is not enough people are using the security settings option, making pertinent information available to help you track down skips.

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