Do you strive to provide a great experience for homeowners? A well-designed and managed customer experience will move clients from satisfied to loyal and then from loyal to being advocates for your company.
Think about your best references and referrals — when they tell you why they called, they always describe a client’s positive experience, not specific products you used or the masterful design.
At my remodeling company, we strive to provide customers with the feeling of being “completely cared for.” Other remodelers I know have chosen different experiences, such as “having complete project control,” or providing a sense of “comfort and trust.” Once you define the experience that sets you apart from your competitors, you can market that.
Decide & Deliver
As owner or CEO, you are responsible for defining that experience. The next in line is your customer experience manager — a position or task you should assign to a specific person.
It can be anyone in the company — as long as he or she has the authority to help shape the budget, update standard operating procedures, market, and even influence investments in new equipment. For example, the customer experience manager may recommend purchasing cutting-edge tools to help employees offer your defined experience, or she may suggest website edits to align with the customer’s jobsite experience.
To meet its goal of creating an experience of “professionalism and efficiency,” a company I worked with equipped its employees with tablet computers so its plumbers could produce a proposal and order parts without having to return to their truck or to the office. The client understands that this efficiency requires a higher premium.
Your customer experience manager should check that you are delivering your defined experience during every client interaction. He should understand how to deliver the experience to different personality types and should also coordinate and motivate your team to see the client’s perspective, observe field operations, and interview clients to evaluate their satisfaction.
A well-designed client experience could be far more important for your company than a well-designed building.
—Daniel Glickman is a branding consultant and business coach at FirmFlair and the co-founder of Sustainable Construction Services, in Sherborn, Mass. [email protected]
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