Do the words “customer service” make you cringe? Most farriers probably associate the term with a bad customer experience.

What's wrong with these scenarios?

So you've got the horse balanced, trimmed up properly and shod and you’d like to keep him that way. You ask the horse owner about scheduling the next appointment and you get an answer just about as firm as the sky you’re standing under.

“How do you sell owners who think they can shoe their own horse cheaper?”

Douglas Weiss has found excessive starch that ferments in the horse’s intestine releases toxic byproducts and also increases the permeability of the intestine, which allows these toxins to enter the bloodstream.

I had a few minutes between clients and was engaged in a conversation with one of the vets at the clinic where I’m a resident farrier. I was profoundly struck by what I observed during a momentary break in our discussion. Another vet walked up to us, excused himself and proceeded to ask the vet I was talking to for some suggestions on a case involving a foal with breathing problems. The clinic had already sent someone out to see this foal, but this was to be this vet’s first trip.

“When your shoeing customers refer to shoeing practices they have read in magazines or on the Internet, your best course of action is to discuss them fully as to their merit and in the context of your understanding of the concept."

IN PART 1, we printed some great tips on buying your shoeing equipment, setting up your truck and taking care of your equipment.

THERE IT IS. That sinking feeling that accompanies the realization that for whatever reason, you might have to tell a client that you can't shoe for him or her anymore and you don't want to make an enemy.

Dear Frank Lessiter, I am the wife of an AFA Certified Farrier who is a "good old country boy." He lets customers eat him alive and is unaware if the customer doesn't respect him.