Are Your Customers Happy? How Do You Know?
I have the tendency to let things go on cruise control. “No news is good news” is the attitude I take rather than being actively engaged. One area where I have realized that this “no news is good news” mentality can have a serious negative implication is with customer service. Just letting your customers be—not actively engaging with them on a regular basis, allows for the competition to come in and win their business without you ever knowing why.
One of the most effective ways that we have found to engage with our customers and to gauge their satisfaction is through simple “Check-In Calls” two or three times per year.
These check-in calls consist of merely calling through your entire active customer list and asking them if they are pleased with the service this season.
Check In Calls
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What to Say:
“Hi, this is Jon with CLIP Lawn Care. I am just calling as a courtesy check in to make sure that you are happy with our service. We really appreciate you as a customer and would love to know if there is anything we can improve for you. If you do have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to call me back at 555-555-5555. Thanks again for being our customer!”
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Benefits:
- Customer feels appreciated.
- Customer provides candid feedback that might otherwise not call you that helps you to improve your services
- You have the opportunity to get more work by offering other services.
- Customer loyalty increases through contact with your company
- Your confidence increases because you know your customers are satisfied.
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Tips:
- Keep a running tally of customers who are Happy, Neutral, or Unhappy. Add these up at the end to see where you stand.
- Make a note of every suggestion for improvement given. At the end, assess what you want to change and inform your crews or whoever needs to know.
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Just DO IT! – The benefits are huge!
Application Action: Just as a test, call twenty random customers from your active customer list and see how it goes. This will take about an hour. Then, once you see the benefits, get the whole list and schedule the calls for yourself or delegate it to someone to do within the next week.
