What you do with them will
Imagine two similarly sized HVAC contractors. George constantly studies the numbers. When a particular channel becomes more productive, he quickly shifts more money there to build on the success. Like many contractors, George created a $39 inspection special to turn more of those leads into service calls. He knows most people call because they know their furnace or AC needs work, and even though $39 doesn’t cover the cost of sending the tech to a customer’s home, it gets his team in the door. George sets benchmarks for the numbers and types of calls he expects each of his techs to handle each week.
The other contractor, Tommy, sends his techs to fewer calls each week. Part of the reason is that they tend to spend more time on each call, so Tommy doesn’t need to generate as many leads to keep them busy. He’s also laser-focused on what happens to those leads. While his team has its own tune-up special to generate calls — at a $79 price point, by the way — their average ticket is significantly higher than George’s. That’s because Tommy has a solid understanding of the three fundamental pillars of growing a home services business.
The Three Pillars
Times change, technology changes, pricing changes, but one thing about the home services industry has long remained the same: consistent success in every market and economic environment is built upon those three pillars:
Marketing
In simple terms, marketing is what drives people to contact you in the first place. Everything involved in how they learn about your business, how well the services and capabilities you offer match their needs, and what you do to make sure they call your company instead of your competitor. It’s about things like branding, pricing, and yes, lead generation.
Customer Service
Customer service is everything that transpires starting with the moment a prospective customer reaches out, especially the first few seconds of the initial conversation with whoever answers your phone or responds to an email or text. It continues through determining exactly who should handle the home visit, the appointment confirmation and alert that the tech is on the way, how that tech interacts with the customer, the follow-up to verify that the customer was happy (and the resolution if not), and the next booking. In other words, customer service isn’t just one step — it’s woven through everything your team does.
The Kitchen Table
Here’s where the magic really happens. Your tech has listened to the customer’s concerns and examined their home’s equipment. They’ve gleaned some basic information about their needs and lifestyle. Now they’re ready to educate the customer about the state of their system. It includes an honest conversation about the options available to the customer and the likely result of each, from doing nothing, to making a repair, to considering whether a replacement is the most sensible choice. And it culminates in guiding the customer to the option that’s right for them and their budget.
Different investments
Both Tommy and George invest quite a bit into growing their business. Like many contractors, George chooses to invest the bulk of it in lead generation tactics like digital advertising. However, he gets frustrated at how many of those leads generate no revenue beyond the special’s $39 price tag. In our experience, even the most successful home services dealers come away from half of customer appointments with zero revenue.
Tommy also puts some of his investment into lead generation (as part of a marketing mix that also includes brand awareness and other goals), but he made his biggest investment in his people.
Callers enjoy talking to the warm, polite, and efficient CSRs (customer service representatives), who know how to listen and gather key information. The techs have learned how to size up each customer’s home and adapt their messages. When a customer raises a concern, they address it respectfully, earning the customer’s trust.
The real difference
What makes Tommy’s business more profitable is that he made the investment in obtaining high-quality, industry-focused sales and customer service training. His CSRs and his techs have learned simple steps and strategies for getting better at engaging with customers and making them more willing to buy. Any surprise his average ticket amount is substantially higher than George’s, or that he suffers fewer cancellations?
Training may not be cheap, but in our experience, it’s the secret sauce that helps our clients grow their businesses and capture a larger share of their markets. What could the right programs do for your business? We’d be happy to have that conversation with you.
If you’d like to know more about Cornerstone, and how we work as your outsourced marketing department to help grow your business, contact kerryf@cornerstonead.com. Or you can call (317) 804-5640 x108.