I was reading an article the other day which dealt with someone’s experience dealing with contractors.  It reminded me of a remodel we had to do several years ago due to a flood.  It was an interesting experience dealing with plumbers, flooring companies, cabinet replacement, countertops etc.

Before this project I must say the I was naive.  I just figured we have an insurance check, so it will be easy because they know they will get paid!  Boy, was I wrong.  First of all, the insurance company is trying to save as much money as they could and wanted to avoid mold remediation.  Can’t blame them for trying to save $8000, but how would that have affected the value of my home?

So, I had to fight with the insurance company and next came dealing with vendors.  Vendors that don’t call back, vendors that are late, vendors that want to argue, vendors who whine about not making enough money after they screw things up and it costs them money to fix.  The list goes on.

It was a lot of work to find the right vendors and get the remodel completed to my satisfaction.  One thing I realized is the level of craftsmanship and competency in some of these trades was less than what I was expecting!

Yes, I am picky, but when you are spending the type of money we are speaking about, you should be picky.

I have 2 points here to discuss.  First of all some of the contractors put themselves out of the running quite quickly because they could not put together a quote in a timely manner or did something very unprofessional in the quote itself.  So, I guess you could say they weeded themselves out by natural selection.  I mean, if they can’t even pass the quote stage, something is seriously wrong.

Now the second part is, I specifically remember getting 2 thank you cards.  One was from the flooring company that we ended up using again recently and the other one was from the least likely company for us to ever use again, the restoration company.

So I challenge you to think about how you would like to be treated if  you needed the services your company provides and take an inventory of policies and procedures.  Does your company get quotes out in a timely manner?  Do you follow up with customer’s to see if they are satisfied with on-going work or work that has been completed?  Do you offer incentives for your customers to give you referrals.  Remember the old cliche “word of mouth is the best advertising”  Do you leave brochures, cards, coupons, magnets behind to make it easy for them to remember who you are?  Do you put up yard signs so passerby’s can get your phone number if they happen to need your services?  Do you get email addresses from your customers?  Have you thought about what the impact would be if you sent your customer’s a birthday card, holiday card, etc?

There are so many things to do before, during, and after the job!  If you take a look at this I am confident you will find something that you may not already be doing that could greatly impact the success of your company!

Share this:

“you can’t afford any hangups”

You have one chance and one chance only to turn that call into revenue, so why not stack the odds in your favor. It is relatively simple to answer the phone professionally. Some companies say, “xyz company, how can we help you today” or you can get a bit creative: “xyz company, how can we make you smile today?” I think it is important to identify the company name, greet the customer and then find out what they need as quickly as possible.

Once you determine what they want you can dig a bit deeper and ask for contact information, get an email address etc, ask them how they heard about your company. My point is that you should think it through how you want your company to handle calls and what type of impression you want to leave with your customers. Also, what types of information do you want to give out and what data do you want to get from each customer.

Companies put so much time, effort and money into advertising, so all I am saying is take a look at your protocol for answering the phone and put a plan into action to help portray a professional image which gives someone calling a much more compelling reason to do business with you!

The main goal is to get your customer service reps to book more calls. There are many tools out there that will help. First of all it is important to have a script. Once a script is in place there are other tools that will record calls so you can listen to them and make sure the customer service reps are doing the job correctly. This will reveal if they need re-training and/or if you have the wrong person and need to replace them! Proper training of customer service reps will make a big difference in your bottom line!

Share this:

My point is that the consumers are tired of being sold things. Consumers are bombarded with postcards, phone calls, flyers, brochures and all types of media blasts trying to sell them things.

A couple ideas came to mind of how a plumbing company can differentiate themselves from the “average” competitor. I will address one such idea in this blog and may continue with some others in future posts.

Getting back to the sales thing, I believe that is not always a good strategy. In plumbing there are so many innovative products that most consumers don’t know about. If a plumber takes the time to educate the consumer about certain products, the consumer is smart enough to decide if that is an appropriate product. There are on demand water re-circulators that save water and get hot water faster to the tap, automatic water shutoffs and leak detectors, solar hot water heaters, seismic valves, tankless hot water heaters, radiant heating and so much more. I believe that education about innovative products can become a great value added service. First of all this is perceived as non threatening, because you have switched from a plumber trying to sell something, to an “ambassador of goodwill” that teaches the consumer about different options they did not know about. So, now you become the local expert and the consumer will realize that you are not just looking to sell them something. If you present one new product a month and let your customer’s know what the features and benefits are and how it works, I believe that will go a long way in building a relationship with your customers as they will start to realize that you are the local expert and can assist them with any plumbing problems or challenges they may have.

Also, this empowers your customers with the knowledge they need to make an informed decision if a particular product is of interest. If the product is appropriate for the consumer and you have educated them properly as to the details, then they will ask for it and now you have a consumer asking to purchase a product that they want or need rather than you trying to sell them something!

Share this:

I get quite a few telemarketing calls these days and I am sure that many of you reading this post get them too. Now, if you are on this website, reading this post, you probably know what “1-800-PLUMBING” is all about. I have a major pet peeve that is the motivation for this post. I get calls from telemarketers or phone solicitors that assume I am a plumber. Now that makes a lot of sense “1-800-PUMBING”, must be a plumber. So when I get these calls I now ask the caller if they looked at our website. To that question, almost all of these callers reply no! I tell them to avoid wasting their time and my time, please go find the “1-800-PLUMBING” website and find out what we actually do. It is very easy to find and if I am in a good mood, which I am most of the time, I may even give them the web address: www.800plumbing.com Then I tell them to call me back once they understand what we do, if they believe it is still relevant to our business. Most of them never call back.

The point of this blog is that we have so much information out there right at our fingertips. Why do many people not use what is right within their reach? I don’t know. I believe that knowledge is power and the internet is the most powerful tool to get knowledge that mankind has ever had available.

Looking at this another way, I would say, “are you getting the results you desire?” If the answer is no, then take a look and see if there are tools that you are not using that could give you better results. Are there tools right at your fingertips that could help you achieve your goals, but you are just not using them? Are you doing your job a certain way because that’s how you have always done it that way?

Oh, and back to that telemarketer, I challenge you to look at the “1-800-PLUMBING” website and let me know you found the blog on using all the available tools to increase your level of success!

Share this:

One might think that insurance companies will not pay for these type of immunizations, but it is certainly worth checking with your provider to see if they are covered.  Sometimes insurance companies see preventative measures as a covered expense, because the cost of a few injections would be a lot less than the cost of treating an illness or condition that could have been prevented.   I think that most people realize that insurance companies like to save as much money as they can!

You may also want to check if there is a vaccination clinic in your local area.  In major metropolitan areas, there are often clinics that specialize in these type of vaccinations for travelers to foreign countries and high risk occupations.

This information has been provided by a provider in the local Phoenix area:  World Travel Health

africa prints

Share this: