The Three Secrets of your customers they don’t even know about themselves
In my soon to be published book From the Zoo to the Wild: Your guide to Entrepreneurial Success and Riches I discuss the Three Secrets of the Customers for home service providers and specifically for the technicians who work in homes. By sharing these secrets in this mystical brain science approach, the home service technician accepts the behavior expectations of the customer and can PROACTIVELY RESPOND as opposed to REACT to customer’s whims and wishes. In the Home Services Business, there are some customers who will immediately place technicians in a lower class ranking and look down their nose at them. They see a dusty physical laborer… not someone great at their craft. The intent with the three secrets is to put my technicians on a level playing field with their customers so they could feel confident and competent and let their inner artists shine. When I let them in on the secret, I always finish with ”Your positive attitude makes their customers more confident in you.”
So without further delay, I will share The three secrets:
1. Service should be completed at the time of the transaction
Customer’s will have this insane expectation that the job is done right when you show up! The Customer has agreed to pay your guys for a service so THEIR job is done, but your home service technician is just getting started. They need to identify the customer, the location, the work and get commitment from the customer in a short amount of time so they can begin the next step.
Sharing this secret with home service technicians allows them to dodge the traps of “would you like a bottle of water?” “where are you from?” and the ever popular trap “can we sit down at the table and review the work prior to getting started” Now your team will know to politely decline and start to set the expectation that the work will still need to be completed, and if you could get to the location and identify the next step swiftly, your technician will be able move forward and do what they do best… FIX PROBLEMS AND PROVIDE SOLUTIONS.
Developing procedures for your technicians to move swiftly to the diagnosis and work phases of the service in homes are critical to getting to the ultimate end of the project and getting paid.
2. People buy from people they like
All too often, our home service technicians think that they’re just there to do the service. Fix the A/C, change out the hot water heater or fix some drywall. In the Home Services Business, your technicians are not there just to fix customer problems. They have to let their customers know, up front, that they like them because they want to like your technician. And if they like your technician, he has a better chance of finishing the job with a flourish. They will LIKE him because of their confidant poise and their expertise in their field. You want to make sure that your technicians are not rushing to get started because of secret #1 but they take the time to make a sincere complement, maybe even smile. You want them to have a pleasant but ENERGETIC demeanor when meeting the customer and one simple thing you can implement is to always have them introduce themselves “Hi I’m CHRIS from XYZ SERVICE and I will be your lead technician today.” There are other processes you can implement but continuous training of your highly skilled technicians on this aspect will help them achieve their goals and you have started to align your WANTS with your technicians NEEDS.
3. People will discount a purchase by ½ the price and double the rebate offered.
Working with the general public makes the retail experience even more challenging: different personalities; different interpretations of words; and the public being generally CHRONICALLY UNINFORMED. Differences are the spice of life, but not managing them appropriately can cost you money. Just because a customer has agreed to trip charge or to an estimate prior to your technician showing up, doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try to find a way to get a DISCOUNT.
This concept takes some explanation, but customers without any knowledge of costing, pricing, and profit will typically assume the additional product or service will cost FAR LESS than what it cost you to do it. And if they decide they don’t want the product or service, they’ll assume that the final price will be FAR LESS than for what you’ll discount the work.
Your process and training should put the technician in control of the pricing and communication of the impact any changes to the original contract or work order. The technician should present all changes (adds, deletes or discounts) at the initial point of the change request. The technician should always followup with a commitment and approval from their customer, and you know what… the customer will be MORE satisfied with the completion and value of the work performed.
Share The Three Secrets of the Customer with your team and watch them become more confidant, more competent and achieve more success with customers and ultimately their NEED to make money will align with your WANT to provide a great customer experience in the Home Services Industry.
If you like what you read here, send me a linkedin message and stay tuned for my Book Release From the Zoo to the Wild: Your guide to Entrepreneurial Success and Richescoming soon where I share my story and a lode of GOLD NUGGETS on my journey starting and operating a successful handyman and remodeling company.