Construction Contractors Community

Barry M · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 90 Location: Indiana

This is a topic I gave a presentation on at a round table meeting of pressure washers up in MI back in July. In a few short years of pressure washing I seem to be good at creating loyalty in customers and getting a lot of repeat and referral work so I was asked to speak about it. I researched the topic in much more depth leading up to the round table as to be prepared. The presentation went well and here is a little bit about the subject.

Why Customer Satisfaction Isn’t Good Enough

In this day and age with more small business than ever, competition is fierce. Everyday there is new ideas for products and specialized services flooding the market. Business owners have to become more savvy and aggressive to survive. If you are still stuck in low gear, depending on old traditional type marketing strategies, you’ll get left in the dust.

It never seizes to amaze me how many companies out there are still running around chasing “new” customers. They spend every dime of their marketing budget trying to recruit customers they don’t know and that don’t know them. All the while leaving their existing customer base alone, thinking that if they need my services again, they will call. It’s understandable to think this way, after all, they were satisfied with our work and may have even said, “We will call you again.” But the fact is satisfied customers will shop anywhere.

Here’s an example: A while back I walked into a small local gift shop to buy an anniversary gift for my wife. As I walk in the front door and make my way across the room, a voice comes out from behind the counter, where a women is sitting reading a book, “Hi, can I help you find anything?” “No”, I say, “I’m just looking, thanks.” She replies “Holler if you need anything.” I shop around for awhile before choosing a gift, and then make my way over to the card isle. After picking out a card, I go up front to pay. The women makes small talk commenting on the gift I’ve chosen, rings me up, hands me my change, and says, “Have a nice day.” I leave the store satisfied, meaning I got what I expected, nothing more and nothing less. Will I ever go back there? I might but not necessarily. Will I go around telling everybody about the gift shop? Most likely not unless somebody asks me about it. You see even though I got what I wanted and walked away satisfied, I’m in no way loyal to the gift shop nor am I going to rave about how great it was. Put yourself in the store owners shoes at this point, I’m sure she is thinking that she just gained another customer and that I’ll be back again, but what she doesn’t realize is that satisfied customers will shop anywhere.

Now, let’s tell the story in a different manner. Let’s say as I entered the gift shop, a lady came out from behind the counter, meet me half way across the room, and introduced herself. She offers a hand shake and says “Hi I’m Cindy.” After giving her a puzzling look I offer my name and shake her hand. She says “it’s nice to meet you, what brings you in here?” I tell her my situation and assure her I’m just looking. She tells me she understands that most guys like me come in here just looking around but that she is very excited about some new items she just got in and would love to show them to me. We both walk over to a different area of the store, carrying on a friendly conversation. After several minutes, Cindy helps me with my buying decision and politely suggests that I go pick out a card for my wife while she wraps her gift for me. Cool! Now I don’t have to do it. I pick out a card and bring it to the counter. Cindy has my wife’s gift wrapped beautifully with the appropriate paper, ribbons, and a bow. “Wow”, I say, “That’s awesome, thank you.” She replies, “It’s my pleasure, your total is $16.95.” I tell her that she forgot to ring up the card, which apparently she already knew because she said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.” Again I reply, “Wow, thank you very much.” She then hands me my stuff and walks me to the front door where she tells me, “thanks again, and be sure to let me know how your wife liked the gift.” I say “I will, thanks for all your help.” Now I walk out of the store with a completely different attitude than before. Will I ever go back to the gift shop? You bet! They took care of me and made me feel important. Will I go around telling everybody about the gift shop? I will most likely tell a few friends and family members about it while I’m still buzzed over the experience and I will certainly tell me wife after she opens her gift. I guarantee every time someone speaks of shopping for a gift for any situation, it will trigger my memory about the experience I had and I will definitely refer them to the gift shop.

It’s easy to see the difference between the two situations. It’s also important to note that if the store owner does this with every customer, and teaches her employees to do the same, business is going to be booming. Even better is the fact that most of it will be repeat business and word of mouth, keeping her advertising costs low, resulting in a higher profit margin. Another plus is that loyal customers aren’t as easily tempted by a lower price making it harder for her competition to steal them away. Loyal customers breed loyal customers and before long she would probably be opening a second location.

I hope this inspires some of you to give each and every one of your customers MORE than expected. Remember that doing a quality job is important but that it’s not necessarily enough to create loyalty. After all, they hired you expecting a quality service so giving them that is what they expected, nothing more and nothing less. It’s up to you to come up with creative ideas, programs, and systems that will create loyalty and thrust your business forward in a few short years.

Supplement loyalty creation with thank you cards, surveys, questionnaires, newsletters, holiday cards, reminder cards, promotional items, and special offers letting your customers know you care about them and that they are important to you. At the same time this also keeps your name in front of them, don’t expect them to find you when they need serviced again. Most companies only spend 20% of their marketing budget on their existing customers and 80% chasing new ones. It’s almost like these number should be reversed once you’ve built up a good sized list. Even splitting your budget 50/50 between new and existing customers can have great rewards. Existing customers are easier to sell since they’ve done business with you before. On average they spend more money with you the 2nd and 3rd time around than they did the first time they hired you. They give you word of mouth advertising and the customers they refer to you are a more quality customer which in turn are easier to sell and make loyal themselves, thus starting the cycle over again. Your customer base is like a gold mine and its there for you to dig in.

It’s a dog eat dog business world out there and you need every advantage you can get. Knowing that just satisfying your customers isn’t good enough and striving for ways to create loyalty by giving them more than they expect will put you far ahead of the pack. No matter what level your business is on it’s never too late to start making your customers loyal by being loyal to them and to start mining for gold in your existing customer base. Good luck!
Barry Maddox

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Pressure Washing Contractor Providing Deck Cleaning, Concrete Cleaning and Other Power Washing Contractor Services

WFConstructionPro · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:19 pm Post subject: Great Information

This is some great information Barry. Why didn't you send this to me to use as an article post? I think I'm going to start calling you the "Pressure Washing Professor" for now on.

Barry M · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 90 Location: Indiana

You make me laugh.

It was just something that spilled out of me yesterday that I posted on one of my other boards. I thought it would fit nicely here in the marketing section. I never really thought it would make a good article for me because it doesn't say anything about pressure washing. But don't worry I have lots more in me Very Happy

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Pressure Washing Contractor Providing Deck Cleaning, Concrete Cleaning and Other Power Washing Contractor Services

Jeannie · Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Posts: 82

I think that the topic is fantastic and not only works with pressure washing but in many areas of the construction business as well. For instance if you are not doing a good job that your customers like you may not get referrals from those customers.

A-PLUS · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 4

Barry, excellent.
I send every client a thank you letter with 3 or 4 biz cards inside.
They are a form letter my wife put together. Change name and
date, but I sign every one. Some of the clients I run into, tell me
they got the letter and how nice that was. Lets them know I didn't
just take their check and forget about them.

Grant1971 · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 32

I think that sometimes customers are not satisfied simply because they do not want to be. The work can be fantastic and they will just never be happy. Maybe they found someone after the project that is complete that might have done it for a lower amount. Maybe they just will never be happy about anything.

Barry M · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 90 Location: Indiana

Picky people whom are never satisfied usually also fall into the category of "cheap".

It never fails, whenever someone gets me to lower my price, wants extra services thrown in for free, or asks if they can pay next week or maybe pay half now and half in a few weeks are ALWAYS the pickiest hard to work for people. Cheap people are picky people and like you said, they are never satisfied and will always find something to complain about. I've even been stiffed before even after I did a phenomenal job.

This is the main reason I don't drop my price once I've given an estimate, if they still don't hire me that's fine, I probably just dodged a bullet.

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Pressure Washing Company Providing Deck Cleaning, Concrete Cleaning, Roof Cleaning and Other Power Washing Services