How To Improve Your Customer Communications
When it comes to keeping your company in business, providing good customer service is key.
Today’s customers, whether they want a new carpet laying, a new kitchen fitting or an old leak fixing expect to receive a high level of customer care, no matter how much you might be invoicing them.
A 2017 study, called the State of Customer Service Experience found that customers put good communication at the heart of a good customer experience.
Many customers felt brands were difficult to communicate with and missed the mark in their updates.
Competition for customers in the trades business is currently harder than ever as homeowners and landlords alike are feeling the pinch and being careful about where and with who they spend their money.
The Value Of Good Communication As A Trades Business
Being confident in your customer communications goes further than being the winning quote at the start of the project.
It can also be a factor in the long-term success or failure of your trades business. Research shows that:
- More than half of customers will cancel a planned job due to poor customer service and communications
- Mess up your communications and customer service just once and your hard-earned client will most likely go to the next most local tradesperson they can find and give them the work instead
- Customers are fickle. They’ll tell an average of 15 people if your communication and service is poor
- They’ll tell just 11 if it’s good. It’s harder to impress but the fallout from a bad review can be painful in the pocket and on your hard-earned reputation
- Get it wrong just once and more than half of customers will never work with you again – and that spells trouble for your long-term chances of business success if you live and work in a small town or city
As a customer, we sometimes expect that the businesses and professionals we trust with our homes and businesses will put us first.
But the business owner in you will know that when you have lots of jobs on the go, quotes to deliver, materials to order and teams to manage, communication can easily fall by the wayside.
This is where choosing the right trades job management software can be a massive help. It will ease some of your workloads and free up a bit of your time.
As well as, keeping your hard-won customers on the side, happy and without reason to damage your trades businesses reputation.
How Can Trades Job Software Help Improve Your Customer Communication Processes?
A good job management tool won’t just make it easier to quote on the go or replace piles of paperwork with a single jobbing software app it can also automate some of your customer communications.
And that means more time for you to focus on the job at hand and happier customers.
Automation shouldn’t be an entirely new concept to your trades or service business.
If you ever send out an email newsletter with news or special offers to clients, you’ve used automation.
If you use Hootsuite or something similar to help keep your Facebook page up to date, you’ve used automation.
This kind of helping hand from technology isn’t just good for marketing. It’s also ideal for keeping up with your customer communication too.
Using Job Management Software To Automate Customer Communications
Ok, so we have seen that good customer communication is at the heart of great customer service.
We know that customer service can make or break your reputation. Helping you to either win new jobs or lose jobs to local rivals.
But, how can you use something that helps you record job progress to win customers over with prompt and efficient communications?
Choose the right job management tool and it’s easy:
- You can use it to send messages and emails to the client directly, so they’re always in the loop when it comes to the work they’re having done
- You can use it to send automated SMS messages to your client, letting them know that you’re on the way
- Keep all customer communications in one place. Making it easy to see what’s what, without needing your phone, email and diary.
- Communicate with your staff, so they all know what’s going on and where they need to be. Additionally, this will give them a heads up on any problems, progress reports, and changes of plan.
- Create professional looking email and text templates for consistent communication.