When clients are upset it’s often because clear expectations were not set at the beginning of the project. Mark Richardson, contributing author for Professional Remodeler has a couple easy guidelines to help you set and exceed customer expectations:
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Arrive early
Arriving for an appointment a few minutes early is acceptable and respectful; arriving too early can be annoying and inconvenient for your client.
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Exceed scheduling expectations
When giving timelines and deadlines to clients, be sure to always exceed expectations. For example, if you’re doing a project and you think it will be done on a certain day, add a few extra days and tell them it will be done at that time. Then when you finish early, your client will be happy and you will be known as the contractor who exceeds timing expectations.
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Come in below budget
This is hard but achievable. Respect the homeowner’s budget and be realistic. Educate them on all of the financial aspects rather than just focusing on choices and options that may be out of the budget.
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Surprise them
Small surprises can go a long way and exceed customer expectations. Things like cards, gift baskets, shoveling snow or even adding something small to the work itself can increase customer satisfaction.
Exceeding your customers’ expectation can be fairly simple as long as you create and communicate the expectations with the homeowners prior to starting the project. Another way to easily exceed customer expectations is to offer a low monthly payment plan to help ease the sticker shock and get them exactly what they want. Foundation Finance offers flexible, easy-to-use financing programs for contractors all over the U.S. For more information, call 855.241.0024 ext. 5012 or email [email protected].
Read the full article here.
