The trouble with having your whole house renovated and redecorated all at the same time is that a decade or so later, everything starts to require attention at the same time. I’m not asking for sympathy, just stating an incontrovertible fact.As a result, I have lately been in search of a variety of local and national trades people to help with a growing list of repairs, including, in no particular order, garden gates and fencing, stained glass windows, the cooker, the dishwasher, the shower. I could go on, but you get the picture.I don’t know why I should be surprised, but I have been sadly disappointed by the unevenness of the service provided by most of the businesses I have had to deal with – large or small.Expectations are naturally low when it comes to one-man bands’ inability to return calls, respond to e-mail enquiries or turn up when they (eventually) say they will. I have come to the conclusion that most of them must be so up to their necks in work that responding to prospective new customers is a chore they can do without (so why do they continue to advertise their wares in local magazines?)This malaise is far from being limited to micro businesses from around the corner however. Some really big brand names are equally guilty of treating after-sales as a necessary evil, rather than an opportunity to enhance their reputation. (Fear not: I’ll be naming and shaming in a minute).Many of them, big and small, are or employ perfectly skilled operators who do a professional enough job, once you get their full attention, and some of these poor unfortunates at the sharp end (those in the bigger companies – BT’s Open Reach springs to mind here) regularly have to pick up the pieces from their Head Office’s useless team of incompetents.The worst by far in my experience is Jacuzzi. After a 15-year-old shower attachment failed – not the first issue I’ve had with their product quality by a long chalk – it took three months for them to send me the correct part, for me to fit (their call-out charge to send someone to fit what is a basic threaded fitment that a six-year old – or me – could replace in five minutes was well north of £100 just for the time and travel). In that time, they also twice sent incorrect parts, which they’ve never asked for back, and denied the serial number I quoted from a label on the appliance could be correct, even after I sent them photographs. Luckily I still have hair to tear out, but if I’m looking thinner on top the next time you see me, you will know why.
But why does it have to be like this?
But why does it have to be like this?
TOO OFTEN SERVICE WITH A SHRUG
Every single thing you build, have built or purchase will succumb to the ageing process. Repairs, renovations, and after-sales service frequently represent a bigger opportunity for profit than the original transaction. The car industry is a case in point: established dealerships make far more from a vehicle’s regular servicing and repairs than from the initial sale, which is probably why, as a whole, they are more efficient at it than other industries.Each time you have a bad experience with any organisation (which you inevitably describe in detail to all and sundry), it can nearly always be ascribed to poor systems and processes throughout the business. And whether you are a one-man band or a mega multi-national, your ultimate reputation and business success will be positively or negatively impacted by how efficiently you:
Every single thing you build, have built or purchase will succumb to the ageing process. Repairs, renovations, and after-sales service frequently represent a bigger opportunity for profit than the original transaction. The car industry is a case in point: established dealerships make far more from a vehicle’s regular servicing and repairs than from the initial sale, which is probably why, as a whole, they are more efficient at it than other industries.Each time you have a bad experience with any organisation (which you inevitably describe in detail to all and sundry), it can nearly always be ascribed to poor systems and processes throughout the business. And whether you are a one-man band or a mega multi-national, your ultimate reputation and business success will be positively or negatively impacted by how efficiently you:
- Handle enquiries and complaints
- Schedule the necessary actions
- Keep the customer informed of these actions and timings, managing expectations and communicating any unanticipated problems
- Get your operatives to turn up on schedule and complete the work required to the customer’s satisfaction
- Charge costs that are exactly as pre-quoted (rule 1: no horrid shocks)
- Check your customer is satisfied with everything after the event
- And if you do encounter difficulties, howsoever caused, over-compensate
It’s not a long or complicated list, is it? As Basil Fawlty might put it (arch proponent of the art of customer service – not): special subject, the bleeding obvious. But very few operators manage more than a two- or three-star rating. Yet here lie the basic ingredients to the most effective marketing tool available for growing your business: customer referrals.If you want to make your business fly, spend some time developing an operations manual that all of your staff work to, with special importance attached to customer service and communications.
Not sure where to start? Read “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber. Or ask me.
Growth strategies a speciality.
David Croydon: 01844 237450/07836 334150
e-mail dave@hilltopconsultancy.co.uk
www.hilltopconsultancy.co.uk