Loading The other day my air conditioning in my home stopped working. Being as busy as I am and as hot as it has been outside I instantly contacted a repair company to look at the air conditioning unit. The good thing is that the company showed up within the same day that I called — although they were 30 minutes late.
But that was not a huge deal since I was working at home at the time. The big mistake is yet to come. The repairman was nice, professional, answered my questions, and fixed the unit very quickly. It was a simple mistake and we were back getting cold air very quickly.
So what was the mistake you ask?
In almost every single business THE hardest thing to do is get customers. Yes, there are a few exceptions to this rule, but if you do not have a system to consistently get customers then you are losing a lot of money.
In this example this company had a customer placed directly in their lap. And although I probably didn’t make them a ton of money in this economy it was still EASY money. They did nothing.
So here is what they should have done.
Step #1: There was no thank you or follow-up. No thank you card, no thank you email (since they emailed me their contact information via a referral) and no follow-up to make sure the unit is working.
Just a little tiny simple thing as a thank you card, or a phone call to see if everything is okay goes a long way.
Why?
Because NOBODY else does it, that is why.
Step #2: They left behind no strategic information to help me remember them the next time I have a problem. What are the things they could do? Lots of them.
A) magnet of fridge
B) magnet on AC unit
C) directly beaming their information to my Palm Pilot or phone
Do you get the idea here? The idea is to become relevant and useful.
Now I don’t know the TRUE economics of their business, but one thing they should at least do is the following.
An “ezine or email newsletter” would be nice. And the email should not be all about them. It could have the following.
a) a guide on how to save $ for energy costs and prevent the life of the AC unit.
b) tips on how to change the filter
c) the type of filter to get
d) special bonuses, upgrades, offers, etc.
e) joint venture with another business.
You see, once they have this client database with people who respect and trust them there are really no limits to the amount of stuff they can do.
What about air duct cleaning?
And so on and so fourth. The simple fact is this. Chances are if I have a problem again I may not remember who did the job the last time. If they leave it up to me that is dangerous.
So here is your action step.
1) Always, always, always follow-up and do at least a phone call, or a survey. It makes you stand out.
2) LEAVE behind something in a place to where they will see it. This is not fool-proof but most people do keep magnets.
3) A newsletter is ideal. Email is okay, printed (if their economics justify it) is better. Both is best.
4) Add offers and bonuses and other things. The customer database is where the money is at. Because the lifetime value of the customer is where the money really is
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Best,
Matt and Sarah Wenger