https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhaHf7BjSGU&feature=youtu.be
IN THIS VIDEO, COREY PHILIP TALKS ABOUT HOW TO TURN YOUR CUSTOMERS INTO RAVING FANS BY:
- Focusing on the 4 main customer touch points
- First call |Phone or Frontline Reps
- The call a day before the scheduled appointment | Reps
- Greetings at the front door | Crew
- Completion walkthrough or ask | Crew or Manager
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, everyone!
It’s Corey, here and in this show I wanted to go through a few points of contact that will lead to a much happier customer.
So, do keep in mind all your projects, no matter what you’re selling or doing — roofs, drywall, patios and decks like I am, windows and doors — these are all high point-of-contact projects and there’s a lot of contact that goes into them from, you know, start with the salesman to the very end wrapping the project up and collecting on it.
But what I find is if you focus on just four points, you can get, you know, 99% of the value for a small bit of the effort.
So, listen in here as I go through it all.
It’s no secret that home services, home improvements, building projects are high points of contact sales.
So, when you’re out there, you know, this isn’t like you’re just selling you know, widget here, and widget there and someone walks up to the cash register.
As you know there’s a lot of communication, lots of points of contact throughout the project.
That could be with, you know, your salesperson.
It’s going to start with the phone, the phone receptionist that takes them in, salesperson, then your crews and then, you know, finally at the end, a manager or still the crew to complete it.
There was a study that found that on average for a service project, small service project under $2000, there’s over 20 points of contact in the whole thing.
That’s a lot.
It’s a lot of contact and it’s really hard to keep it all concise and keep everyone on the same page.
You all know what I’m talking about.
You know, I’m sure you’ve had customers that say “well, your sales guy was great but the crews, man, they just sucked” or vice versa.
You know, “I didn’t feel confident in your guys.” Or “Your guys didn’t even let me know that they were done.
When they were done they just kind of cleaned up and left.
But there were some things that I could have pointed out to him that I would have like to have been fixed.
And, well, now you’re still going to fix them but I’m not quite as happy as I would have been in the very beginning.”
Now what I’ve found with these points of contact is that there’s an 80/20 rule and in that sense, I mean, there’s a few points of contact that really make a huge difference towards earning a radically happier customer.
So, let’s take a look at them and go through and cover what they are.
The first one: the very first call that the customer makes to your company.
This one is crucial because this is ultimately where, you know, they kind of finalized their first impression.
Their first impression generally starts at the website but then, once they call, they’re kind of get some reaffirmation of “Yes. This was like your professional first website.”
Whoa.
I really misspoke there.
Let me clarify.
What I am saying is that the first phone call that comes and the first interaction that your company has with this customer, it needs to reflect the level of professionalism and impression that your website set.
So, if you’ve got a really awesome professional website that is going to generate leads for you and it is going to get people to call but on the back end of that, your customer service reps that take that phone call, needs to have the expertise, professionalism, and warmth that your website gives.
Otherwise, having that awesome website is going to lead to no profit.
It’s not going to lead to anywhere.
So, let’s back to the podcast.
Or “No, you know the website was awesome but you guys sound absolutely horrible. You sound rude. You sound abrupt. You don’t sound inviting.”
So, that first phone call, you really got to master it.
You really got to make sure that you’ve got a trained customer service rep on the end of the phone.
Someone that sounds knowledgeable, professional, and most importantly, inviting.
You know, there’s, there’s a lot of scripts out there and all kinds of stuff on getting customers, you know, warmed up when they make that call and how you can make that to sell.
But ultimately, what it all boils down to is — inviting.
Does the person on the other end of that phone have a nice inviting tone?
So, the first call 110% crucial.
If you can’t master that first phone call, your sales are going to dwindle.
So, you really got to set the tone on that first phone call.
That’s the first one.
The next one, the phone call the day before the project.
How many times has this came up in your business and, you know, if you started the company that says no doubt came up in your business and even now when you’ve got a systemized machine, you know, that’s kind of cranking projects out, you still run into this issue.
Customers are still like “I have no idea you guys are coming out today”.
And we try to avoid that and we do a pretty good job.
I’d say we’re probably 99%, you know, avoiding that type of stuff.
We do call the day before but you really got to master this.
Have someone make that call.
Have a list of where you’re going the next day and make sure everyone gets called and leave the messages and really drive that point home.
They know you are going to be there the next day because everyone hates surprises.
So, if you can get that one out of the way, let the customer that you’re going to be there even if they already know that they’re going to be there.
Make that phone call.
Customers might have some extra questions.
They might have some reminders that are valuable to you.
So, it makes the business go smoother, and it makes the customer happy.
That’s number 2.
Number 3 is going to be the Greeting at the door when your service guys walk up there.
Now, sales guys, that’s an important point, too, when your sales guys go up there to do the presentation.
However, they’re generally going to be a lot more upbeat because they want to make the sale. Your service guys, when they show up to do the work, need to knock on the door, smile, introduce themselves, be friendly — friendly and courteous with the customer and establish some confidence.
Establish some rapport so the customer is totally confident in the person that’s doing the work and that the person likes them.
You know, if the customer does not like the service guy, right off the bat, you are in for a headache of a project.
Doesn’t matter what you’re doing.
Customer needs to like the service guy.
And the guys that are actually going to be coming out there to do the work each day until completion, whether that ’s just that or several days.
Customer just needs some type of connection there and it all starts with the greeting at the front door.
Finally, there’s the final completion walkthrough or ask.
You know, a lot of time guys finish up projects in the evening.
This happens on my projects from time to time.
They finished our projects in the evening and they just want to go home.
So, what do they do?
They break everything down and run out of there really quick.
You got to break that habit.
You really need to the customer at this point because, you know, if the customer feels like you didn’t really care about completing the project at the end, guess what, they’re going to be unhappy.
By having, you know, specific ask or a mandatory walkthrough, you’re going to alleviate a lot of the call back problems but the customers are also going to be happier.
They’re going to feel like you cared.
So, a simple “Hey, Miss Jones. We’re wrapping up the project here.
Everything’s done. Let’s take a walk around here.”
Point out anything, you know, any problems that you have or, you know, you don’t even have to, say point out any problems that you have.
You could say “Let’s take a look at your project here and take a look at it.” And then, just go through and talk about, you know, everything that was done.
“We did this, and this here. We did that and not here and that’s why,” that way the customer still gets the walkthrough but you don’t necessarily open the door to nitpicking the project.
That one works quite well and that’s what our service guys do.
So, if you can nail those four points of contact, you are going to have radically happier customers.
80/20 rule.
These are the four points of contact that I find are most important to getting a happier customer.
Now, you know, don’t discard any other moments of contact that you have with the customer.
But if you could really focus on these, and master these, you will have radically happier customers.