If you’ve ever tried cleaning your own grill, you know how difficult it can be. Homeowners who want their grill cleaned know this too and prefer to have someone else do the cleaning for them. Not only are you providing a valuable service for them, you are saving them their most precious commodity – Time!
Did you know that most businesses spend a considerable amount of time and money trying to get new customers in the door when they have a potential gold mine in their current customer base?
With any home service company, customers are the lifeblood of our business. Without them, our business wouldn’t exist. Studies have shown that it’s cheaper to keep a customer than to acquire a new one and repeat customers are more valuable than new customers.
However, the problem is that once the customer base is built up, the average home service company will devote all of their marketing efforts into acquiring new customers and fail to keep in touch with their existing customer base.
Don’t get me wrong, when you first start out, spending money to acquire a new customer is super important because you can’t have a repeat customer if they never make that first purchase. But, building relationships with your existing customers is more important, yet, is vastly overlooked by most.
Will every customer be a repeat customer? No. Some customers will be a one-time cleaning while others will be a once a year or every other year. But, it will not be uncommon to get a few customers who want a cleaning every six months or even a few who want a cleaning every three months.
Never assume a customer will be a one-time cleaning because of where they live or you think they can’t afford your service. You don’t know their living or financial situation so don’t assume anything and give them the best cleaning ever. If they decide they don’t want to use you again maybe they might refer you to a friend or neighbor based on how well you cleaned their grill.
It will be your responsibility as the business owner to get email addresses and phone numbers of your customers and keep accurate records of when the cleanings took place so you can send reminders. You never want to rely on the customer remembering when they last had a cleaning or even by whom (yes, they may forget your company name). Ask your customers if they want a six month or yearly reminder and follow up with them at that time. By asking this question it not only helps you determine your future work load but will give you permission to contact that customer again in the future.
