Contractormag 2640 Gold
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Contractormag 2640 Gold
Contractormag 2640 Gold
Contractormag 2640 Gold

Customer relations is gold standard

Oct. 8, 2015
A bad performance that goes uncorrected, or not apologized for properly, can taint your brand In today’s digital environment, a customer is more apt to put a bad review on Yelp! or some other social feedback website than not Doing the right thing each time, every time, should be your goal If the customer is satisfied and happy, suggest they leave a favorable comment on your website

In the service/remodel/repair facet of our industry, prospecting for new customers and retaining existing customers is the gold standard for not only keeping your business healthy, but keeping your business... period! If you run a successful service shop, you know that a bad performance that goes uncorrected, or not apologized for properly, can taint your brand for a long time after the incident. Things happen. That’s a given. Not everything runs smoothly every time.  

Whether you are a one-man show or have people working on your behalf, sometimes “stuff” happens. It’s how you handle the stuff that makes the difference between a mildly disgruntled, but mollified and ultimately satisfied customer, and someone who will go out of their way to bad mouth you and your company forevermore.

In times past, word of mouth spread slowly in most geographic areas. Land line telephones were communication devices in the most primitive sense of that word, relatively unchanged since Alexander Graham Bell invented them. While it was not likely a customer would call a neighbor after experiencing a less than stellar performance by you or your people, it wasn’t impossible either. The fallout from a bad performance in that era was localized and containable. Advertising was done via an ancient product known as a Yellow Pages directory or some variant of a local Penny Saver publication as television, radio and billboard advertising was prohibitively expensive for most small shops at that time. You could change your image as easily as changing the copy of your ad.  

Drastic changes

The digital revolution changed communications drastically. Telephones are no longer just for talking into. In fact, they are merely ancillary adjuncts to the greater functions of a smart phone and the gateway to the World Wide Web. In today’s digital environment, a customer is more apt to put a bad review on Yelp! or some other social feedback website than not. Because of social media, today, people feel connected to the community at large and, as people want to do, complain at the least provocation. They want to have their complaints validated by that same community. I’m not saying it’s right, just that it is what it is. Your reputation, no matter how sterling and well deserved, can be bent, twisted, spindled and mutilated with a short post either to your company’s website or a generalized social site. Trying to explain or refute a bad report, on line, is an exercise in futility and not recommended.

Having said all that — what can you do to keep your shop complaint and problem free? Well, you can start by making customer relations and customer satisfaction the base line of your business. Your customer’s are your bread and butter. When you or your surrogates enter a person’s home or place of business, that customer should become the focus of your company for the time you are there. Doing the right thing each time, every time, should be your goal. Arriving on time, presenting a neat appearance (both your personnel and your vehicle), doing the job or diagnosing the problem correctly, in a professional manner, is the very minimum you should strive for. Engaging your customer in a friendly fashion and smiling while you do is a little extra you should consider too.

Cleanliness, not only in your appearance, but in your work habits will make you stand out as well. Putting on booties to cover your work boots before entering a customer’s residence is a good way to set the tone for your visit. Using a painters’ drop cloth to cover the area you will be working in is another. Vacuuming up after you are finished is the cherry on the cake of your service call. Since plumbing or HVAC work sometimes entails making a bit of a mess, informing the customer in advance of what to expect (and assuring them that all will be as it was before, in the end) will ratchet down the anxiety factor.

his human interaction makes the customer feel that they are working with you to get the job done and relieves small concerns without detracting from the overall job performance.

Some customers like to hover and watch the work in progress. Unless you are stressing over a problem such as a frozen clean-out cover or old pipe joint, it is no big deal to engage them in light conversation while you work. This human interaction makes the customer feel that they are working with you to get the job done and relieves small concerns without detracting from the overall job performance. Contrast that with trying to be secretive and keeping the customer away from your work. How would you feel?

If the customer is satisfied and happy, suggest they leave a favorable comment on your website or other social media site as a way to help you out. If the customer is not completely satisfied (some folks are never satisfied and there is nothing you can do about that), try to find out why and, if you can, make it right for them. The very least you should try to do is to leave the customer feeling that your company is capable and competent.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born author is a retired third generation master plumber. He founded Sunflower Plumbing & Heating in Shirley, N.Y., in 1975 and A Professional Commercial Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix in 1980. He holds residential, commercial, industrial and solar plumbing licenses and is certified in welding, clean rooms, polypropylene gas fusion and medical gas piping. He can be reached at [email protected].

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