I met Vic sitting at a pool bar while I was on vacation. Vic had just gotten off work and was enjoying a cold one under a tiki hut, which happened to be his old employer's tiki hut. Vic told me all about his past employer...how they didn't care about their employees or their properties, how he had asked for a pay raise and for an entire year they ignored him. Vic talked happily about his past co-workers, though. He was happy to see some of them promoted and others who had moved on to better opportunities. He told me all about his new job (thank goodness I had consumed a few cold ones myself so I had the patience for this lengthy conversation) but then he told me about his first job.
His eyes lit up talking about the best boss he ever had at a car mechanic shop. He said, "He cared. Really cared. In fact, he would call each and every one of his customers personally to make sure they were satisfied with the work they received." I was a little taken aback at the idea. How old fashioned and how fundamentally one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time. Why hadn't I thought about that? That's client service 101!
We spend a lot of time trying to find the best resources to have the highest customer satisfaction, get the most 5 star reviews on Google, Facebook and Yelp, but are we making the touch point with clients that we need to? How many more clients and referrals could we get if we actually made that genuine follow up at the end of a sale? It could be a phone call, a text or an email, but what if it wasn't automated?
Now I know you're thinking, I don't have time to do that. Think about this, how much money did you spend on advertising to get that one sale? What's the value of a customer for life?
Make the time. Make the connection. You're only as good as the clients you retain. Now excuse me, I need to take my own advice.
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