Every year we host what we call the HindSite Business Summit. This year it’s Dec. 4 at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. It’s our favorite day of the year because we get a bunch of customers in a room and get to have great conversations with them. We love talking to our customers.
Not only are they great people, but they help us in innumerable ways. Their product suggestions help us improve our field service software. They give us information about what they love about our product, which we can use to improve our sales process and marketing messages. They give us competitive information. We even record field service software testimonials that help prospects understand the benefits of our software.
Talking to customers is a great thing. But you don’t have to hold an annual event in order to talk to your customers. Here are four “excuses” to call your customers so you can improve your field service business.
Quality Assurance
Our service business marketing solution, HindSite Connect Pro, includes post-service customer satisfaction surveys. After each service is completed, you can automatically send customers a link to an online survey asking them to rate the service. It’s a great way to get feedback from your customers.
If you’re using a post-service satisfaction survey, it’s worth following up with customers. You should always call the ones that rate you poorly to try to rebuild that relationship. But I’d also recommend calling the customers who never responded.
You don’t have to call them all, but scheduling some time every week to call one or two customers you haven’t heard from under the guise of a quality check-up can help you better understand how your business is performing.
To Say Thanks
HIndSite uses a marketing automation product called HubSpot. One day, a package arrived in the mail with a HubSpot coffee mug and a hand-written thank you note. Within a couple minutes of its arrival, I received a phone call from our account manager thanking me for being a customer. I was impressed.
If you’re using post-service surveys, you should also periodically call your happiest customers to simply say thanks. You’d be surprised by how far a simple thank you can go toward a customer relationship. Plus, they'll be more likely to open up to other questions you may have if you first say thanks.
New Products/Services
When we released the aforementioned add-on, HindSite Connect, almost two years ago, we thought we promoted it heavily. We sent emails, created multiple webinars and created notifiers and promotional messages within HindSite. Then we started calling customers. Many of them had no idea what we were talking about. We thought that we’d overcommunicated about the new product, but found when we called customers that many just weren’t aware.
So if you’re offering a new service, be sure to pick up the phone and call your customers to talk to them about it. Not only will it help spread the word and drum up new revenue, but it can also help you glean some competitive intelligence if your customer is already paying someone else for the new service you’re offering.
Communicate an Offer
A couple months ago, we had a free trial for an add-on product. We called all the customers not using that add-on to let them know they could try it free - no strings attached. During the course of those calls, I had a number of great conversations with customers about our product and their business. I learned a ton making those calls and it was well worth the effort.
If you have a discount or some other type of offer related to your services, don’t be afraid to give your customers a call and let them know. It’s likely the majority of them will turn you down, but even if they do, you can have meaningful conversations with them about a variety of topics. It’s well worth putting in the effort.
Want to measure your customer satisfaction? Download our free ebook, Measuring Customer Satisfaction, today!
