How To Keep Your Customersprofitablemarketingsystems.com /how-to-keep-your-customers/

Joe McVoy

The example that follows is from the consulting I did for a painting contractor here in Denver.

And, although most people have trouble taking an example from one industry and applying it to your own,keep an open mind and think about how you could use these ideas.

I’m sure you want to keep your customers, but do you have a “system” that does it for you?

There’s no point spending money to bring new customers in your front door if your existing customers areleaving out the back.

This post is going to show you three things:

1. how to keep the customers you have

2. how to make sure your customers never forget you

3. how to make sure you are good at and stay good at what you do

First, let’s be clear what we mean by “keeping” a customer.

We want your customers to never even consider using anyone else when they need someone who doeswhat you do and to become passionate promoters of your business.

Sound good?

So, do you wonder if it’s worth the effort to build relationships with people who might not need you again allthat often?

Here’s why it’s worth it: refer to my last post . . .

And that’s not all…. especially for businesses like painting, roofing, remodeling, and others whose servicesare not needed frequently, people can easily forgot who you are.

another survey showed . . . 90% of customers of these type businesses were satisfied with their serviceprovider, but 95% forgot who it was when their service was needed again.

Wouldn’t it be an absolute crime to have someone who loved your work, forget who you were when theyneeded you again or got asked for a referral?

So how do you keep your customers and make sure they never forget you?

The key is to develop and maintain an ongoing personal relationship with them.

Most people do business with people they know, like and trust.

You do too, don’t you?

The problem is that we can’t take all our customers out to lunch each month or call them all personally justto stay in touch, but here’s what you can do…

and the first of the 3 things I promised to show you…

Set up a “Thank You” system

The big hurdle to cross is to understand the concept of building relationships is not about selling.

In fact, a couple friends of mine wrote a book called “Appreciation Marketing” that describes theprocess.

The way to stand out and get people to tell their friends about you isNOT to deliver the service expected. Doing what’s expected isunremarkable and not worth telling anyone about.

To get people talking about you to their friends, you need to dramaticallyexceed their expectations.

Doing this will get them talking and make sure you are remembered.

Think about it – if you drive through a fast food place and get the sameburger you always get, do you tell anyone?

The good news is… this is simple to do and can be automated.

This does assume you are good at what you do and your work at leastmeets your customer’s expectations…

To exceed your customer’s expectations, just thank customers afterdoing a job.

If you do it right, this simple act will completely surpass all their expectations and cause them to tell theirfriends.

Since most businesses have rotten customer service these days, if you provide great service and showyou sincerely appreciate your customers, that, by itself, will get you noticed.

Take a moment now, and put yourself in yourself in your customer’s shoes….

You just got your house painted…

a couple days after getting a follow up call to make sure you were happy with the job, you go out to getyour mail.

There’s a box in with the rest of your junk mail…

You are not expecting anything, you didn’t order anything lately, so you wonder what it is and who it’sfrom…

So, you open the box…

Inside is a gift!

And… there’s a greeting card on top of the gift inside a “crystal clear” envelope.

As you look at the card, you’re thinking – “that’s a nice card” and then you notice that this isn’t just anycard, there’s a photo of my house right on the front of the card!

you open the card, and inside is a handwritten note from the owner of the painting company, telling youhow much he appreciates your business and saying thank you.

When you open the gift, you find 4 large brownies inside.

You taste one and the smooth texture and rich taste is the best brownie you’ve ever had.

Now I ask you,

“have you ever, in your entire life, been treated like that and shown appreciation by anyone whocame to do work on or in your home?”

Probably never.

Do you remember that earlier I explained why 68% of customers leave?

It was because they felt their business was not appreciated.

So what happens is that this small act of appreciation will probably result in your customer telling yourfriends about it because it’s so unusual.

Your customer will probably save the card forever because it has a cool picture of their house on the front.

So, isn’t that worth the $15 or so it costs?

Especially since it’s all automatic and you can have your office manager send the prewritten card with justone click and have your paint crew take the “after” photo.

“System” number 2 – a “Stay-In-Touch” System to make sure they never forget you . . .

Do you remember that other survey I mentioned?

The one about how that, although up to 90% of customers might be happy with your work, as many as95% or more of them will forget who you are by the time they need you again?

Now, thinking as a customer again, how would you feel if you had received that card and gift and then thepainting company kept in touch with you by sending personal, handwritten greeting cards from thebusiness owner him/herself?

If you got a personal card 4 – 6 times a year from your painter, do you think you could ever forget them?

Not even if you tried!

If anyone your customer knows asks them if they know a painter they will say: “you bet, my painter is<your name here>. They’re great, look at this card they sent me a card after the job with a photo of myhouse and some awesome brownies….”

The key to these cards is to have them be relationship building, not selling.

Your office manager can launch an automated campaign to send 12 cards over three years for a total costof $7.22 (plus stamps) – with just one click.

If you want, we’ll pick out cards for you, write the messages and launch the campaign for you…

How cool is that?

System number 3 – a “quality assurance” system

Please understand that none of what I’ve mentioned so far will do any good if you suck at what you do!

You need to make sure you’re good and stay good at what you do.

If there are any problems with your staff, individual painters or crews, you need to know about it right awayso you can fix the problem.

Our simple “one question survey” can do this for you.

Created and documented by a Harvard professor, this simple, “one question” survey is the only customerservice survey ever done where getting a good score has been proven to result in more profitability foryour company.

I don’t know why this is such a secret, but it could be because market research companies can’t justifycharging you lots of money to do surveys that are only one question!

If you become a client, we’ll give you all the details so you can do it yourself – and automate it – for free!

It’s not that hard, the survey is only one question after all….

The Bottom Line… If you are committed to being the best at what you do, we are committed to helping youget the word out that you are the painter to choose in your city.

If you are not all that good and don’t care about being better and staying better, don’t bother contacting us,because our systems won’t work for you. To learn more, get in touch with me now!

Joe

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Joe McVoy

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