Driven Performance Advisors

Once your customer is paid for and their car is out the door, is that the end of your relationship? If so, you’re missing out on many opportunities to increase customer satisfaction, upsell, and reduce the primary causes of complaints and bad reviews.

Take the time to capture, organize, and then use your customers’ information. Get their emails, phone numbers, and vehicle information into a customer database to help you follow up.

Here are some tactics you can use to get real value out of your time spent following up with customers.

Increase customer satisfaction

Follow up with a customer is a really easy way to show just how much you care about them. Whatever the service you provide, call the customer a week after they pickup their car. Ask for feedback on the overall experience, make sure everything is working to their satisfaction, and get new photos or videos as appropriate that you can feature on your social media.

If they are dissatisfied, have them come back in. This gives you a chance for an upsell, as well as to fix whatever problem is causing the dissatisfaction.

Upsells

“Next time you need work done, let’s get you those new wheels we showed you at checkout!”

“You’ll need a brake fluid flush after the next track day, and we can check out your alignment and corner balancing again at that time too.”

“If you find yourself not washing it every couple weeks or leaving it in the sun more than you expected, bring it back in and we can protect the wrap with ceramic coat.”

Each of these upsell opportunities is not possible without follow up. Sure, you can say these things during checkout, but it may slip the customer’s mind the minute they get back in the car. A concrete way to make sure that they think of you for follow-on services to what you’ve already provided: follow up emails.

Reduce complaints and bad reviews

If a customer is unhappy with your work, it’s possible to win them over. I don’t care if they’re trying to take advantage of you, or it was an honest mistake on your part. The majority of bad reviews that I see online relate to the customer believing they received poor quality work for what they paid for.

If there is any chance of a customer being dissatisfied with your work, bring them back in and talk to them. Don’t ask for pictures, bring it in. Pay for the tow if the car broke down. Rather than getting defensive, ask questions. Your follow up takes a different approach here – follow up constantly to understand all of the information that has led to your customer’s dissatisfaction. Damage? Show them your inspection sheet. Loose bolts? Show them your photos taken mid-job. Peeling or discolored wrap? Replace it and claim warranty on the materials.

Ultimately, it’s not difficult to make the customer happy if you’re prepared on the front end and capable of following up regularly to ensure satisfaction and quality in your work.

In conclusion

Make customer follow up part of your process – sure it takes time up front, but it will save you serious time, money, and stress in the long run.

Let me know how it goes – email me at arun@drivenperformanceadvisors.com.