That moment the keypad battery died mid demo and the customer's face went white

Last Thursday I was finishing up a walkthrough for a small office install in Richmond, showing the owner how the system armed and disarmed. Everything tested fine for like 20 minutes, then I went to re-arm it for the third time and the keypad just went DEAD. Turns out the panel backup battery was DOA, not even holding 12 volts, and I had set up the demo to run off an old battery I grabbed from my van without checking the date. The customer started panicking, asking if the whole place was unprotected, and I had to explain it was only the backup that failed, not the main power. I swapped in a fresh battery from my stock, re-synced the keypad, and finished the demo without another hiccup. It took an extra 45 minutes and I ate the cost of that battery, but honestly it was a good reminder to check the date stamp on EVERY backup cell before showing a system. Has anyone else had a battery fail right in the middle of a sales demo, and how do you handle the customer's trust after that?

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loganhart26d ago

Hell yeah, I see this totally different. You didn't have a battery problem, you had an honesty problem. You knew that battery was old when you grabbed it, you just didn't check the date. That's on you, not the gear. I've done hundreds of demos and I always pop a fresh battery in the night before, because this exact crap happens. The customer's face going white is actually the best part, it shows they're paying attention. You ate the cost and fixed it quick, so yeah, trust takes a hit but you recover. But don't act like this was some random bad luck. You cut a corner and it bit you. Own that instead of making it about checking dates.