People tend to patronize the same restaurants, hotels, airlines, coffee shops and even material suppliers when given a choice. We become accustomed to a certain level of service and consistent treatment. As the business grows, adds new team members or expands into other markets, the customer experience may change. What keeps customers loyal? Consistent service, for one. A business must be invested in the customer’s experience through changes and time to retain that trust.

Customer service is easy to overlook with the other demands of running a business. There are bid deadlines, labor shortages, obstacles to getting materials and the list goes on. We’re out there chasing our tails, solving problems and competing to be the lowest bid to win the project. 

What if, instead, we looked at our best and favorite customers? These are the ones who pay on time and value our service, who regard us as experts and tell their friends and associates about the great experience they had. Wouldn’t life be great if we could get rid of some headaches and be paid for the value we provide rather than competing on price?

Assessing your current customers

First, look at all the potential interactions customers have with your business. It may be with the person who answers the phone. Are they friendly and helpful, or are they doing the bare minimum? 

What about the employees in the field? They probably interact with more prospective or first-time customers than anyone. Do they look and act professional? Are their vehicles clean, in good repair and driven professionally? Do your estimators and project managers respond promptly to requests? Are invoices complete and correct, leaving no questions about the work provided? When the work is being installed, is the job site neat and tidy, with no loud music playing? Are these tasks performed by a workforce that looks professional?

When customers have a good experience with a company, they tend to use them again and recommend them to others. How can we ensure our customers have the best possible experience with our business?

There are three important areas to improve our customers’ experience: what it is now, what we want it to be and the plan to get there. 

Before going too far down the path of developing a game plan for a better customer experience, we must identify our best customers’ attributes. We don’t want to create a plan to get more customers we don’t like working with or that we don’t make money working for. Who are the top 10 customers that see your value, pay well and you would love to do 10 more jobs for?

Now that you have your list of attributes, come up with questions to ask them about why they use your company rather than the competition. Ask what they like and don’t like about the experience they have when using your services. It is crucial to have a formal list or survey developed, rather than just having a conversation over the phone. 

The goal is to get consistent feedback from all 10 of these customers. That way you can determine what is working, what isn’t and where your can make effective efforts to improve the experience for them and future customers. Remember, in the end, we want to deliver the same customer experience throughout all aspects of the business.

Evaluating the feedback

Now that you have feedback and insights from your best customers, rank the responses from best to worst. At the top of the list should be the experiences the happiest customers identified and that were performed at an above-average level. 

At the bottom of the list are areas that need improvement. Looking at that section, what improvements in the experience will have the most significant effect? This isn’t necessarily the low-hanging fruit or a quick, easy win, but something that, with some effort, will positively change how your customers experience working with you. It may be as simple as having a live person answer the phone rather than an automated receptionist or voicemail. It may be more complicated, such as changing the format of your invoices to clarify what work was performed and how you arrived at the price.

The last step is to formulate a plan to implement these changes and improve your customers’ experience. As you develop your strategy, remember that it includes all aspects of the business. 

The plan should include a clear picture of the entire customer experience, from the first interaction through performing the work and the follow-up after the project is finished. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What would make you want to do business with your company again?

shutterstock / Irina Strelnikova