customer relationship

Ban These Items on Residential Jobs!

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stop bad habits as a service professionals

KickStart: Don’t allow 1) sunglasses, 2) ringing cell phones and/or 3) bad attitudes inside your client’s homes! Read on…

Back in the day, I loved pulling up to a new residential customer. New people, a new job-site, and new challenges. (Say what you will, our home services industry is seldom boring!)👍

Sure, I always had a few butterflies too.🫢 Did the office give me an accurate work order? The right tools and materials? Will I be able to get to my next job on time? And most urgently- will this homeowner be a total idiot?😲

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Why (and How to) Focus on Your Last Scene with the Homeowner

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front line service workers under pressure

KickStart: Before leaving, give clients a “tour” of the job and thank them for their business.💖

front line service workers under pressureI know, you (and your front-line workers) are under a lot of pressure.😲

The phone (hopefully) keeps ringing and every crew needs to “shoehorn in” an extra job or two… every day! So, it’s tempting to bang out this project and ZOOM off to the next Job! Don’t fall into this trap!👎

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Service Clients Love It When You Get Their “Permission”!

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irked home services customer waiting

KickStart: Get more 5-star reviews by asking for the homeowner’s “Permission to Proceed” throughout the project.

Permission to Proceed

Are you happy in our Home Services industry? You reply, “Absolutely, Steve! What’s not to love? I’m blessed with interesting jobs, the money is great and I work with some great customers and employees!” (Of course, these same clients and employees can be a trial sometimes!)

irked home services customer waiting

But now look through your first-time customer’s eyeglasses to feel in a very real sense… their pain!😥

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Why (and How to) Focus On 3 Essential Business Areas

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small business owner focuses on priorities

KickStart: man·​age ˈma-nij To direct with a degree of skill. 

small business owner focuses on priorities

Finding a balance in business (and life) is an ongoing, moving target for most of us. Our shared Home Service Pro entrepreneurial challenge? Managing our OCD tendencies to not get distracted off into Displacement Activities!🙄 Instead, you must focus ONLY on the high-profit, “important stuff”.

True Confession Time: I still find myself going down obsessive rat holes while wasting enormous time on pursuits that add nothing to my happiness, relationships or even my financial net worth!🤔 (You’d think I would have learned by now!)😲

Remember, your residential services company is an incredibly fragile creature. This means as a service business owner or manager you must…

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Your Best 24-7 Home Services Sales Weapon…

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pensive home services marketer

KickStart: “You should not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking!” Oliver Cromwell

pensive home services marketer

Every Home Services business owner KNOWS they should do more cold call selling. Correct? Absolutely! And yet…

We don’t! I know, you’ve got 1,000 reasons (excuses?) to not make sales calls but in reality…

We all hate, fear and despise knocking on the doors of strangers😬 and therefore… we don’t! But wait!

Why not do “Serendipity Selling” when you instinctively “strike” during your daily business (and personal) routine? For example …

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Two Huge Final Inspection Techniques Before Leaving the Job Site

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residential client examines service work with magnifying glass
residential client examines service work with magnifying glass

KickStart: Before leaving give your residential customer a quick walk-through while explaining any possible “areas of concern”.

Discover Customer Complaints Before They Explode

Your company has finished another great job… CONGRATULATIONS!👍 The client loves your crew and it’s time to head to the next job. Right? NO… wrong!

Instead, invest a few proactive minutes to show your customer “The good, the bad and the ugly” of how the job turned out. “The ugly, Steve?” Yep, you’ll clearly explain the “WHY” of a not-quite-perfect job. (You’ve already pre-oriented the homeowner on the “1) WHO, 2) WHAT and 3) WHEN”.) Here’s why…

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OBSESS Over (Your Home Service Clients) FEELINGS!

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KickStart: “… it’s not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most.” Tony Hsieh, Zappos founder

focus on residential services profits

“Feelings, Steve? Seriously?” As a rugged, profits-obsessed residential services business owner you likely focus ONLY on your bottom line! (I did too!) After all, who had time for a squishy, hard-to-manage word like, “feelings”?

I mean, everyone knows “emotions are for sissies”?💪 Right? WRONG! For far too many agonizing years I struggled before FINALLY learning that…

In a residential service business success is based on building “trusting relationships” (TR’s)! 

In fact, Mr. Logical here even reduced this concept into an “Emotional Equation”: Success= (ETR + HTR) x SE= CMB. Say what, Steve?😲

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Clearly Defining Your Home Service Client’s Expectations

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happy home service customer

KickStart: ‘Clearly defined expectations’ are the basis for all successful relationships.(Including with your homeowner clients.)

This KickStart quote above is a one-size-fits-all principle to guide your business and just maybe… your life!💖 (After all, you have a myriad of ‘ongoing relationships’.) But today, let’s focus on molding your business relationship with each residential customer…

complicated service client relationshipI know. You’re thinking, “Steve, I’m not marrying my homeowner clients! I don’t care about a ‘relationship’.  Honestly? All I want is to a) do the job, b) get paid and c) get on to the next job!”

I get it but SORRY! It just doesn’t work that way!👎 To be truly successful in any Home Services business you MUST focus on each homeowner’s relationship with you AND your workers! Here’s why:

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