Growing a Lifelong Client Base

When an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical technician is called out to a potential customer’s home for a service or sale call, it’s not just what the tech does with that initial opportunity that is important but it is also how he works to make the customer a lifelong client. Company leaders must work to instill the company’s vision and values into their entire team so each member will be able to successfully portray the company’s unmatched service excellence to potential clients.

Ron Smith explains in his book, HVAC Spells Wealth, that he made it a key priority to instill the company vision into his entire team.  Each team member could confidently respond that their service company’s mission was, “To get and keep customers.”  This is an important vision for all independent contracting companies in the industry of HVAC, electrical, or plumbing to adopt; because instilling this overarching vision into a company team fortifies long-term company success no matter what stage or season they pass through.  From the moment that a company representative is in contact with a customer, they should work to make that customer a satisfied, lifelong client.  What better mouthpiece for free company “advertisement” than a completely satisfied client?  Here are ways that a company can work to make customers lifelong clients:

-Service Excellence– “Choose to deliver amazing service to your customers. You’ll stand out because they don’t get it anywhere else.” –Kevin Stirtz

Providing service excellence is an all-encompassing goal that should have an important place in every branch of an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical service company.  Service excellence should be a company’s non-negotiable standard whether in service, sales, customer service, paperwork, or systems and processes.  Customers notice a company’s commitment to service excellence and they will always return to the company where they receive amazing service and are treated with respect; they may even bring others with them.  Walt Disney said; “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”

In today’s society, being met with outstanding service is something to talk about and people do– verbally and electrically.  A single customer’s opinion can stretch far and wide with the ring of a cell phone or the click of a mouse.  So it pays to provide amazing service that is above and beyond the average service standard.  Completely satisfied customers can work as a company’s “mouthpiece” to provide free and positive visibility—now that’s a “win-win!”

-Referral Lead- “In sales, a referral is the key to the door of resistance.”-Bo Bennett

When your service company provides excellent service, receiving referral leads will be a more simplistic process.  Referral leads are beneficial to service companies because they provide “social proof” that your company delivers amazing service and products. It is one thing for a company team to exclaim their company’s greatness but quite another for a lifelong client to sing the company’s praises.

Potential customers are likely to trust a lifelong client because they have no reason to exaggerate about the company’s service excellence— either they think the company has amazing standards or they don’t.  Not to mention, a lifelong client wouldn’t refer a service company to a close friend or family member unless they personally thought the company provided amazing service.  A great referral lead positively shapes and grows the value and social proof of your company as well as helps to make the initial process of breaking through hesitation and resistance much easier.  

-Scheduled Service Plans– “If you want to be creative in your company, your career, your life, all it takes is one easy step… the extra one. When you encounter a familiar plan, you just ask one question: What else could we do?”– Dale Dauten

Offering Scheduled Service Plan options is an “extra step” in the sales and service process that can lead to mutually benefit the client and the company.  Providing customers with Scheduled Service Plan options is a way to easily generate regular contact with a client and, in the long run, create lifelong clients who value a company’s routine service.  Presenting these options is also a great way to show a client how they can automatically save on their investment total as well as how they will save on utility payments through regular maintenance.

Excelling in the promotion of Scheduled Service Plans also results in the success of the company during the busiest of seasons to the slowest of seasons.  These regular maintenance calls help to provide stable work for the company team when demand calls are not consistently coming in during the milder seasons.  Having continual contact with loyal clients helps strengthen and grow a service company.

A company with lifelong clients is a company on the path to success. Through offering service excellence a company builds a strong and loyal client base where satisfied clients provide great referral leads.  Offering Scheduled Service Plan options also takes a company’s service standards over-the-top and helps to retain lifelong clients.  Here at Service Excellence Training we have many popular lessons on each of these three topics: service excellence, referrals, and Scheduled Service Plans.  Contact us today to learn more about how you can grow your base of lifelong clients.  Thank you for following our weekly posts. Here at Service Excellence Training, we turn learning into earning!

-Resource curated by Whitney Stewart of Service Excellence Training.