Most Construction Companies have one thing in common: they start off with fairly limited resources.
Your team has delivered a fantastic product on handover, now how do we manage Customer Care?
When the time comes to create a Customer Care system or process, it makes sense that any business will choose the path of least resistance.
Enter the generic Customer Care file.
A one size fits all tool that is used to store everything from: internal communications, lists of sub-contractors, appliance manuals to a master excel spreadsheet containing all reported Customer Care issues for every scheme or project.
I’m guilty of employing it and so are many of you.
This ‘Customer Care Bible’ as it is referred to in many cases can become a real source of pain for many Construction business owners.
Put the lever arch file down, the Customer Care revolution starts here!
So what happens when your Company hits that growth spark and everything is starting to pick up?
If you have a website, you likely offer an email Customer Care section.
Once the backbone of your customer Care department, the Customer Care email has now become a monster too big and complex to tame.
The emails start piling up, your ability to respond diminishes, and fewer of your home-owners and clients are having their issues dealt with within agreed time-scales.
Maybe this hasn’t happened to your business… yet. Or maybe it’s happening right now.
Not sure if you need to make the upgrade from your home-made Customer Care system?
Here are 10 signs that you should get you thinking about changing your approach today:
1. “Someone” manages the emails that come from the Customer Care section on your website, but many are falling through the cracks.
2. New Home-owners and Clients call you to ask if you received the Customer Care email they sent, but you have no idea what they’re talking about.
3. You lose track of e-mails when forwarding them to the relevant staff member, and have no idea if anyone has followed up with them.
4. You have no way of knowing if the Home-owner or Client is fully satisfied with your answer because they are never prompted to follow-up with you.
5. Your email provider is having problems with their servers, you will not receive new support requests or be able to respond in a timely manner.
6. You must manually update customers files in your Customer Care file when problems are solved or to request satisfaction feedback.
7. Email doesn’t remind you when a question has been left unanswered for too long.
8. One of your Customer Care team calls in sick and their inbox has new unread Customer Care email messages…
9. You lose track of a conversation with a new home owner or client. Emails get accidentally deleted, people get added and removed from email chains, and each email is tied to the inbox it was sent to, meaning you cannot easily work on an email with another member of your team.
10. Emails facilitate multiple responses to your clients and new home-owners from different members of your team, often leading to more confusion than resolution.
What’s next? In just 30 seconds, you can sign up for clixifix and quickly begin experiencing the benefits of a dedicated, purpose-built customer Care platform for Housebuilders and Commercial Contractors.
You get a 30-day free trial and we have many excellent resources to help you determine if clixifix is the right solution for your business.