10 customer service tips to more business

Great customer service will grow your trade or property business

Customers are the lifeblood of your business, so why wouldn't you have a focus on customer service as part of your marketing strategy for your trade? I find a lot of trades do not think this is important, but they are wrong, they believe their business and job is to go and do a survey, quote, do the work and then leave!

Yet the benefits of doing more, going further for the customer outweigh the actual energy use to do the 'little things' - surprise the customer with service they don't expect and it'll be a win- win outcome.

Delighting a customer means not only will they use you again in the future without even calling anyone else for quotes - they are going to become a fan of your business and recommend you and who knows where that could lead.

What customer service is not!

I say this a lot - Satisfaction guaranteed is not customer service, that is expected as a minimum, do you think a customer looks for a plumber, electrician or tiler and says 'I'm going to take them on, it'll be okay if I'm not satisfied with the work'? 

If your marketing has things like this in it then you're best removing it and using something that will work better, this does not set you apart from your competition.

Here are some customer service ideas

1. When doing a survey sit down with the customer and explain how you work, what will happen and offer advice and tips to save them money or get better value, not just from your trade but other trades too.
2. Give amazing guarantees.
3. Once a quote is sent - call to make sure they have received it, understand it and thank them for asking you to quote.
4. Do what you say you will! most people let this slip, I'm guilty of this at times but I always aim to do it 100% of the time.
5. Take them a gift as a thank you on the day you start work.
6. Save them time or money - When I used to go out for a break or lunch I always would let them know where I was going and ask them if I could get them anything!
7. Once you've completed the work give them a bottle of wine or chocolates and a hand written thank you for using your business (this has a massive impact). If the job is a bigger one you could be a bit more extravagant maybe with vouchers for a restaurant or other service. 
8. Share other services from businesses that you trust from your networking activities that can help them (You do network right? Read this)
9. 2 weeks to  month after the job has been completed call and make sure they are happy with everything.
10. A year after you have completed the work send a thank you card.

These are just a few ideas of the things you can do to stand out from the crowd and most trades are not doing things like this, be different.

Put a smile on your customers face

There are more things that you can do and I hope this has got you thinking, and proves customer service isn't just for commercial or corporate companies, trades and property businesses should focus on it too!

If you have employees or subcontractors on board you should get them to buy in to this philosophy too, and have a reward recognition system in place for the people who get the most positive feedback!

A few years ago I met a great guy called Derek Williams who runs a company called The Wow Awards I would highly recommend having a look at his site and follow him on twitter here He's passionate about customer service and engaging with employees in this way.

If you want to read more about customer service, I read a great book called 5 star service 1 star budget that you can read for more ideas, it's written by Michael Heppell and you can find him on twitter here.

Finally I would say see if your customers are using social media and connect with them there and stay in touch and offer help where you can.


To your success

Paul Jennings