3 Birds with 1 Stone – Prevent Refunds, Up-Sell, and Get Customer Feedback
- - Mowing customers say, “Your crew was not here last week! I did not see any difference in my lawn.”
- - Sales are few and far between, especially to new customers.
Here’s a look at our “We were here” door hangers:
Notice the two main features:
1. The details about our visit (date, crew, and time)
2. List of services with an opportunity for our crew to recommend a service.
Also, this is a great opportunity for us to receive candid feedback from our customers, so we have included a web address where our customers can leave feedback.
Do you have a leave-behind for each time you do a service? Why not?
We have found that customers appreciate the notice, that the opportunity to up-sell is foolish to pass up, and that the feedback is vital to improving our service.
FYI: Cost for printing 3000 of these on cardstock in black ink was $128 including shipping.
Please share any ideas you have for customer leave-behinds in the comments.
The other great thing about this idea — especially if you were to add a larger bit of colorful clip art that was used in your other publications — is that potential customers in the neighborhood could spot it and see, “Hey, clearly this service isn’t just one of those companies that litters the neighborhood unsuccessfully soliciting business. This company is the one my neighbor actually uses!” With some clip art evident from across the street, the neighbor coming home would associate the visual, such as that line of green grass I saw elsewhere on this page, with a truck bearing the same art, and they’d know whom to call. They also might take initiative to inquire with your customer as to the level of satisfaction with the service. The benefit only increases as your business acquires more customers on the same block, which has twin benefits: more business AND more productivity/efficiency in being able to serve neighboring customers together without having to use up so much gas going from place to place.
In my parents’ upscale neighborhood, one comes home every day to find several business cards, flyers, and the like hanging from the door handle, almost all for either lawn care or housekeeping services. It amazes me that more of these people don’t see that they are making virtually no impact at all, compared to the expense and time spent papering the block. The few customers that my husband acquired from his late mentor (an elderly man who had let go all but his best-paying customers as he scaled back to a one-man operation) all live in such neighborhoods, and this idea would work well to influence their neighbors.
That is a great point Angela! People being able to see your work is certainly an upside. One idea that I am working on this year is this: for customers who live on corners of busy streets, I am offering a discount to be able to put an attractive sign in their front yard stating that we maintain it.