So he redefined what Pinnacle Energy’s salespeople do. Besides selling jobs, they also function as project coordinators. That involves three additional responsibilities. First, they have to follow up within a week of signing to make sure that homeowners have heard from others at the company. Second, they are required to walk the job at completion. By reappearing at the house, they have to answer the homeowners’ questions about issues, performance, and what the completed job entailed. “If they never promised anything crazy, they have nothing to fear,” Pinto says. Third, they’re responsible for contacting customers within a week of the job being finished to ask for referrals.
Colligan says that sales reps should take responsibility for communicating with customers all the way to the point of installation. “Salespeople should be the customer advocate within the organization,” he says. “If there’s an issue, he should be the one the customer calls. He should be the one making sure things are happening.”
Colligan also made salespeople responsible for walking their jobs. At first that wasn’t popular, he says, because they were worried they were going to lose opportunities. But he also created the position of Customer Experience Manager — the point person within the organization responsible for coordinating all contact with the homeowner. If the homeowner has a question about the job, he or she doesn’t have to call three or four people, just one. And, Bliss notes, if you do create a customer service manager position, make sure it’s not just “a glorified complaints department.”
That position is important when you put a customer service program together and begin to implement it. It becomes less so later on. “If you don’t have a culture of customer service, then you’re going to need gatekeepers and policemen to keep people in place,” Bliss points out.
REPORT CARD What owners who have implemented a customer service plan say is that while delivery and installation problems are unavoidable — glass will break, windows will fall off a truck — communication with homeowners at key points in the job process reassures them that those problems will be addressed. Pinto says he found that if homeowners don’t hear from the company for six to eight weeks after contract signing, they’re apt to be far less forgiving of problems that develop on the job.
But beyond avoiding disputes, the bigger target is referral and repeat business. The point to devoting money, time, and energy to customer service is that it produces bottom-line results. And how do you know? The best way is to ask. Hundreds of home improvement companies now use the services of GuildQuality, a Georgia-based third-party survey company that contacts customers, usually by phone, to have them grade the contractor on everything from sales to follow-through and installation. For instance, 80% of Southwest Exteriors’ customers respond to GuildQuality surveys. Anything negative comes up at weekly production meetings and “we jump on it right away,” Barr says.
Two years ago, Massachusetts home improvement company Newpro hired GuildQuality, and last year Newpro created the position of “customer concierge,” whose job it is to contact customers, especially those who have responded to GuildQuality’s survey. Customers are called by salespeople on the day of installation and by the customer concierge when the job is complete.
Newpro, a family-owned window replacement company prominent in the market, now offers a menu of home improvement projects. Director of operations Nick Cogliani Jr. says his goal is to increase Newpro’s referral business from 10% to somewhere between 20% and 30%. The company is still working on having salespeople return to the job. Some do, some don’t. That’s a struggle that other companies are engaged in as well.
“Customer service is one of the things we’ve never been good at,” Pinto says. “Now, we’re trying to make that change; to keep customers in the loop.” The goal is to have Pinnacle Energy get 40% or 50% of its business as repeat or referral. “I’d like to get it to 100%,” Pinto says. “Then I can eliminate my whole marketing cost.”
To learn more about customer service, attend this year’s Replacement Contractor Executive Conference in Las Vegas, Feb. 23 and 24.
