Increasing retention inside an independent contracting company comes from relationships that are built during initial company-client interaction as well as from the continued relationship that is built after the client has decided to invest in your service company and products. But in order for retention to be solid, there must be several types of relationships built between your HVAC company team and your clients.  In our post today, we are going to explore the importance of growing both individual relationships with clients as well as company relationships with clients and the effect that this strong rapport has on retention growth:
Grow an individual relationship
Before a potential client will say ‘yes’ to a close on the first investment with your company, they must feel that they trust the company team members that have helped them during the process. When CSRs, technicians, and managers work to make their first impressions with a client positive and memorable then they are on their way to establishing a relationship with a potential lifelong client. We naturally gravitate towards the places where people know us because as humans we want to be interacted with and appreciated. This same concept holds true to relationship building inside an independent contracting company. When a new client feels that they have built a relationship with one or several of your company team members then they will naturally want to do repeat business with your service company because they have an established relationship and feel known. These company-client relationships are grown through small relational acts such as a CSR recognizing a client’s voice when they call and asks about the client’s family or when a client asks for the same technician to come out for their scheduled service call because they enjoy the relationship that has been built. When company team members focus on consistently building relationships and establishing rapport with the clients they interact with then they are on the path to steady increases in client retention.
Grow a company-wide relationship
While individual relationships are vitally important, it is also essential to build a strong company relationship with clients. In today’s world, it is getting easier to network with clients on a broad scale while still maintaining personable interaction. With access to the internet becoming more available than ever, clients can access information and conduct research on your company 24 hours a day. Thus it is so important to ensure that your company’s webpage and social media sites provide the information and engagement that potential clients need in order to be enticed to call into your company for their service needs. Your company’s website should look professional, easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate, and possess a clear focus. Your company’s social media sites should spark engaging and appropriate conversation between clients and company team members as well as provide information about your company and current promotions. It is vital that your company stay up-to-date on the relationships and rapport that can be built online because a majority of potential clients in today’s world will be looking for your company to have a unique and relational web presence.
When service companies effectively combine the power of individual relationship building and the power of company-wide relationship growth then it is a combination that has the potential to bring great increases in client retention and satisfaction. This great retention boost start by ensuring that the company team both engages with clients on an individual level as well as works to engage clients from a great company perspective. Thank you for following our weekly post. Here at Service Excellence Training, we turn learning into earning!
-Resource curated by Whitney Stewart of Service Excellence Training
[…] Retention builds loyalty, strength, and lasting success inside of an HVAC independent contracting company in regards to both coworker retention and client retention. Last Tuesday, we explored the components that combine to create excellent coworker retention. In our post today, we are going to complete the second part of this series as we explore the next important step in building retention—strong client retention. […]