Before, During, and After

How to stay in touch with clients and others.

The phone rings:

Return the call as soon as possible and set the appointment.

Send a letter out the next day confirming the appointment and telling them a little about your company and what to expect at your meeting.

Meet with the client. Do the estimate/proposal and get the deposit. Ha!

Send a letter out the next day thanking the new client for the job and confirming the start date.

Do the job.

During the job mail the neighbors a letter, a business card, a pen, and a card explaining how to choose a contractor, all in one envelope.

Have the lead painter or foreman pick up the final check and ask the client to fill out a testimonial form.

That Friday any jobs that were completed that week get another letter printed to them thanking them for their business. That same day mailing labels for packages are printed for the clients who were completed that week. Send each client of a completed job a small gift. We send a calculator mouse pad or a coffee mug with a picture of their house on it and 1-800-PAINT-JOB printed on them as a thank you for their business.

All customers and non customers go into a database. They are then mailed quarterly newsletters, holiday cards, etc. Sometimes we only mail to customers and sometimes we mail to jobs we lost also.

Thank referrals properly. So far hand written thank you cards have been received very well.

These are fairly simple steps to take to stay in touch with, and keep clients thinking of you. By the time the jobs are finished and beyond the company should become almost like a friend to their clients. Someone they know they can trust. Someone they know they can refer to others. Someone they know.

By the time a job is finished in any neighborhood, the clients and their neighbors have seen the company name and number several times. They've seen it on 3-4 letters, on trucks, on job signs in their front yards, on the T-shirts that the painters wear, and hopefully on the coffee mug or mouse pad every morning. Finding new customers is tough. Keeping ones you already have is much easier.

Paul Burns

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