Customer Service
Happy customers = more profit
If your business provides outstanding customer experiences, making money becomes an awful lot easier. Commercial contractors do business with and through the same companies repeatedly. This reality of our industry can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the client experience you deliver. The contractors who nail this are competing less, charging more, and making uncommon profit margins. Those who don’t are trapped in the low-bid cycle, with everyone else making next-to-nothing margins and not having much fun.
Which contractor are you?
How to ensure outstanding customer experiences
It starts with putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. Aside from price, what do they care about most when it comes to hiring a company like yours? What are the things you might do or fail to do to frustrate them? What are the things you might do or not do that would delight them?
You can ask yourselves these questions, and you’d probably be pretty accurate, but you should also ask your customers. I’ve found that people have an easier time complaining than coming up with ideas to make them happy, so be prepared for some venting and, no matter what you hear, thank them for the feedback. Their harshest critiques are gifts that may help you make more money.
Once you have a picture in mind of what it will take to create outstanding customer experiences, build steps into your company SOPs to ensure them and train your people how to deliver delight. Simple enough, right? Not so fast.
Internal service must be the top priority
Your people must care about creating these kinds of outcomes for your customers. Even examples of shining customer service like Chick Fil A can’t create a “wow” experience with a disengaged employee. Imagine one of their staff saying “my pleasure” with sarcasm, an eye roll, and obvious contempt. It happens.
For your people to be all-in on creating the amazing experience your customers deserve, they must be all-in on you (leadership), their team, and the company as a whole. We must learn to deliver outstanding internal customer service first. If we do that, we’ll have a team who believes in the importance of whatever you’re asking them to do. How do you create an outstanding internal customer experience?
Well, it all starts with putting yourself in your internal customer’s shoes... (see above and repeat the exercise) ;)
The Spark Notes:
Delivering outstanding customer experiences transforms repeat business into a competitive advantage, enabling higher profit margins and freeing contractors from the low-bid cycle.
Start by stepping into your customer’s shoes to identify their priorities and pain points, then incorporate their feedback into your standard operating procedures to ensure consistent, delightful experiences.
Outstanding customer experiences require a team that is fully engaged and committed, making internal service and employee satisfaction the foundation of external success.
By treating your employees as internal customers and addressing their needs, you create a team that’s motivated to deliver exceptional service to your clients—fueling profitability and growth.
