Who here makes follow up calls?

[Mikey P]

A few Q's..

If they don't answer the phone do you leave a message or call back?

How many sound appreciative of your concern?

How many sound suspicious or bothered?

Do you get many nit pickers asking for you to come back and get the lint out of the crevices or try that set stain one last time?

Do you ask if they want a reminder notice for their next appointment?

Do you use this opportunity to spy on your tech? Or are you concerned that they may think you lack confidence in him or her if you ask?

Do you use it as a chance to up sell other services?

 

[XTREME1]

I send a postcard in the mail next day with a thank you and satisfaction questions and I will send a reminder in 6 months and around a year. The year has a coupon for 10% off and the 6 months has 20% off.

 

[Mikey P]

Does Matt Murdock have the day off?

 

[XTREME1]

no just between jobs right now. I am moving faster now with the precrub and have not adjusted my times. A lot less spotting etc. Can someone take that picture of the X Daredevil and make it my avatar

 

[Maynard679]

Its a great idea to do call backs.

If they do not answer leave a message, only call once. If you get a voice mail have go to your website to take a satisfaction survey if your website is set up that way.

If I had my carpet cleaned and they called back to ask how it went I would feel like that company is taking care of my needs and did the best job possible. Of course not everyone will think that. I think few would be bothered.

You should get a few nit pickers, but if they have an issue go back for free and take care of it. This is a job of customer service. They will use you again because you took care of them.

Yes it is a chance to spy on your techs, who care your the owner and they are the employee's. If you trained your techs good then you should have little problems. You have to make your employee's understand that it is part of customer service and again this is a job of customer service.


If you are thinking about doing it, you should. You can get up front feed back on your services on where you excel and where you lack. So if you need to adjust some things you can, instead of losing clients for some stupid reason that could easily be fixed......Good Luck......





James

 

[Chris A]

we wait about a week to call back, my fiance calls, some are annoyed, some are appreciative, most aren't there and we just leave a message. We do let customers know on the job that we'll be calling to check up.

 

[bob vawter]

I do follow up calls all the time.....

I always put the phrase in...."Well how did OUR young man do for ya today?

Once the tech becomes THEIR young man.....he suddenly becomes MUCH BETTER!

Try it!

 

[Guest]

I call back the next day or so. If they don't answer the phone I leave a message.

Most do appreciate the phone call, but once in a while I'll get a suspicious response. Usually from an old lady that been ripped off by the other guy.

I get alot of nit pickers, but I haven't had any call backs in a very long time.

I don't ask if they want a reminder notice, I just send them one with a discount attached.

 

[doug450]

I did a job about 3 weeks ago and in my add I list that I will come back if a stain reappears,there was a hot chocolate stain that I removed and I just got a call back two days ago,I went there thinking I was going to be working on that same stain and it was not that stain it was two other little stains that were not there before,its like the people think they have a maintenance program on that one fee that they paid for the first cleaning.
It makes me think maybe before I clean a stain I am going to measure from wall to wall and write it down in writing where the stain is.

It is a business where this happened and the original guy that called was not there the second time he had a different guy call me to tell me the stain reappeared,so I am pretty sure they know they played me like a fiddle,but not no more,I learned from that one



Doug

 

[Desk Jockey]

If they don't answer the phone do you leave a message or call back?
We leave a message, if you don’t they will call wondering why you are calling them.

How many sound appreciative of your concern?
We you do contact them most, not all sound appreciative.

How many sound suspicious or bothered?
Yes, you will get some that are suspicious are bothered you called, so only call once.

Do you get many nit pickers asking for you to come back and get the lint out of the crevices or try that set stain one last time?
Occasionally but very few, but it’s actually worth going the extra mile for these few people, because they may not have complained, but they probably would not have called you again.

Do you ask if they want a reminder notice for their next appointment?
No we have not, but wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Do you use this opportunity to spy on your tech? Or are you concerned that they may think you lack confidence in him or her if you ask?
We mail a self addressed and stamped “how did we do?” card with the thank you card a few days after the cleaning date.

Do you use it as a chance to up sell other services?
No

We use to call them all but since we use the "Thank You" cards, now we only call commercial or those that may have a problem.

 

[bob vawter]

Curious if anyone has ever "tested" a techs honesty....?

 

[steve g]

I don't do it, but I think there is real value in it,

first off, look at any complaints as an opportunity to prove your company stands behind its work, as a tech before I started my business I would take complaints so personal it bothered me, I don't think I returned back to their place with the right attitude. I just needed to look at it different

if there is a problem isn't it better they tell you?? than not call back?? the problems you don't know about should be your biggest fear.

I think it also gives you more opportunity to reinforce your company name and further build a relationship with the customer. If my business was soley focused on building residential cleaning instead of water damage, I would defiantly do the follow up call, I think its pretty much mandatory if you have chimps working for you

 

[Derek]

i do it 99% of the time for commercial...50% of the time for resi.

only 1 commercial client i can think of i dont give a follow up call and that is because he is too nit picky and i plain dont want to hear it.


thanx --- Derek.

 

[Rex Tyus]

No news is good news.

 

[Al]

If they don't answer the phone do you leave a message or call back?

We leave a message, Just a simple courteous message, Letting them know the first reason for our call is that we greatly appreciate their business, and that we are calling to make sure that the work we recently did was to their satisfaction.

How many sound appreciative of your concern?

99%

How many sound suspicious or bothered?

I have to be honest, we have had only positive feedback from our customers.

Do you get many nit pickers asking for you to come back and get the lint out of the crevices or try that set stain one last time?

For the most part no, Occasionally you will come across a nit picker and if that happens, We try to turn the situation into a positive call and take care of any concerns.

Do you ask if they want a reminder notice for their next appointment?

No. We have another calling campaign that we use for that.

Do you use this opportunity to spy on your tech? Or are you concerned that they may think you lack confidence in him or her if you ask?

No, After a walk through with the client our techs inform them they will receive a follow up call from our office in a couple of days, However if a problem should arise before then they can feel free to call our office at any time.
.
Do you use it as a chance to up sell other services?

No, This is done during the original call and during our other tele-sales campaigns.

 

[Ricky Thurman]

I have always done similar to Greg. Postcards the next day. and reminders at 6 and 12 months (only I don't offer the discount).

If there is a problem with their response on the postcard, then I followup with a "How can we make it right" phone call. and they always appreciate the concern.

Do whatever you can to please the nit pickers...as long as it is within reason.

 

[bob vawter]

Steven...yous is one smart sucka.......i liks you!

prolly cuz you know the secret handshake?

 

[jwojtusik]

we call each and every commercial and residential customer we clean for. we also send thank you p/c. they like to know that you care after you leave the house.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Yes Mikey every job, even the one's I tell Amanda to not keep on the customer list. LOL

Very similar to Al, if no answer we leave message. Tell them we now you are busy so if you would like to return the call that would be great, otherwise no news is good news. Thanks again for your business.

 

[Jeremy]

Same as Fenstermaker here.... Although I've' done a few follow up calls & found out I left an air mover behind. Can't hurt.

 

[Al]

LOL Jeremy I found some corner gaurds and a horse hair brush.

 

[breathe72]

I did try follow-up calls.

Its in the way you word it.

Do NOT ask, "How does everything look for you?" or you will get what you got coming, and I don't care if you are a master-hack.

What works for me is, "Did Jeremy do a good job for you?"

The customer is more likely to nit-pick what they believe to be a corporate entitiy "us", as opposed to a regular-guy technician "Jeremy" who was clean and polite and broke a sweat, and reminds them of their kid in college.

Its jedi-mind talk, but really you are asking them to evaluate or hammer the character of your tech, though it doesn't come across as that. And they won't do it.

So the phone call ends with a win-win on both ends, and you haven't invited nit-pickery upon your company, by unknowingly selecting the wrong language.

You don't need to do follow-up calls to spy on your techs.

Just tell them you will be doing some follow-up calls today, and that they need to be razor-sharp, polite, and have their a-game ready.

 

[bob vawter]

"You don't need to do follow-up calls to spy on your techs."

Then HOW do you make sure they're honest wit you?

 

[breathe72]

Bob, re-read what I just wrote.

TELL your tech(s) you will be following-up at the end of the day.

That will often keep em honest.

 

[Al]

Our techs do a "walk through" with the client after cleaning to make sure everything is perfect. After that is done they explain that it is our company policy to do a follow up call.

Our follow up call is to thank the client for the business and insure that they were happy with the work performed, it's part of our service.

Our techs don't consider this spying, nor do we.

 

[bob vawter]

But you never discuss the amount of the bill?

And if you don't...why?

 

[bob vawter]

Sometimes i'll send my tech out to clean a friend of mine's carpet...who "offers" him a deal (cash) if he'll jus go though those extra two BR's......

 

[Al]

Do you mean question the client to make sure that the tech didn't charge a higher rate?

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

Never take cash, always take lip service. The boss can't get mad at you for that.

 

[steve frasier]

usually only with new customers

Although I've' done a few follow up calls & found out I left an air mover behind.

this usually happens when you get to the next job and figure out you don't have your wand