What if we treated our customers like we treat our friends? What would we do different?
A few weeks ago I was at the ISH Show in Frankfurt Germany. My mobile phone’s battery was nearly gone. I needed that phone. I needed it for maps. I needed it to text other people. I needed it for translations. But it was dying.
Brad McGhee from LBA Air Conditioning in Kansas City offered up a battery bank he recently purchased, letting me borrow it to charge up my phone. Grant Harris, an Australian in our contingent, produced another battery bank at the same time.
Once Brad and Grant recognized that they had products that solved a problem I faced, they immediately offered to loan them to me to charge my phone. This seems natural, right? It’s what friends do for each other.
So why don’t we do it for our customers?
If we have great products and services that represent solutions to our customers’ problems we should make a point of letting them know about them. We should advertise what’s available. In fact, advertising become obligatory.
If Brad and Grant kept their battery banks hidden, it would be tantamount to a contractor’s failure to advertise a product or service solution that could help someone. It would be selfish. It would be rude.
Are you rude and selfish?
What about your technicians? Every day they visit homeowners who need solutions you provide or who might desire upgrades you offer. Too often our technicians keep them a secret. They act like a friend who takes us to a mobile phone store and only lets us look at the flip phones. Some friend.
Quit thinking in terms of advertising and sales. Think in terms of what you want your friends to know. Think about ways you can improve your friends’ homes and lives. Think about informing friends about products and services they don’t about. Think about treating your customers like friends.
In truth, this is approaching your customers with a servant’s heart. It’s asking yourself how you can truly be of service. Remember, HVAC is a “service” business. We “serve” people who need HVAC maintenance, repairs, replacements, upgrades, or enhancements.
Approach your customers with a servant’s heart. Approach your customers like friends. If you do, you will have more customers and more friends.
The heart of servant contracting is acting with a servant’s heart. It’s acting as a friend would act. It’s seeking ways to be of service to others.
To learn how you can be of greater service to your customers call the Service Roundtable at 877.262.3341 and request a tour of the website so see the wealth of sales, marketing, and business management tools available for you. Don’t forget to ask how you can get paid to be a member through the company’s Roundtable Rewards buying group. Or, visit www.ServiceRoundtable.com.