Surprisingly, I have talked to a few people lately that told me how hard it was to get potential service providers to come to their houses to give them bids or take care of work that was already agreed upon. Really?? Companies are making it hard to let people use their services and pay them? Can I have some of their business? Must be really nice to have luxury to relaxingly respond to potential customers and take care of business at your leisure. Does that come with daily massages, miniature giraffes and an unlimited supply of gold encrusted cashews?
Unfortunately, this is a fantasy to most of us. We need to work hard for every customer and sometimes even harder to keep existing ones. Whether you are a retirement or assisted living community, a nursing, memory care, home care or hospice provider, the one thing you must do is make it easy for customers:
1) Be visible and have easy to find information on your products/services
2) Be easy to reach, instant access through e-mail or phone or a response back within 3-4 hours.
3) Understand their needs and provide well thought out options
4) Once you have provided information, don’t forget to follow-up in a timely manner, don’t make them have to track you down.
5) If you get the business, carefully walk them through the post-sale process, documentation needed, deadlines, etc. Answer questions before they are asked and provide all information in a simple, step-by-step manner that isn’t frustrating or confusing.
6) Make sure payment terms and method of payment are clear and in writing to avoid confusion between the sale and the invoicing process
7) After the sale, continue to keep the customer in the loop on upcoming offers or benefits that reinforce their decision. If they have to renew, make sure they know about any changes or additional value they are receiving.
These are a few ways to make it easy for the customer to choose your company and, as an added bonus, recommend you to others.
Are there other ways you make things easy on the customer? What has worked especially well?
Please let us and others know! Promise we won’t steal your business……….