Too Much Experience?

Posted on:

October 2, 2018

There’s no such thing as too much experience, right?

I mean, who would you rather have working on your car – the guys who has been at it for 20+ years, or the kid who just dropped out of high school and decided being a mechanic looked easy enough?

Hands down, I’m going with the first guy.

But there are times when too much experience – like any strength – becomes a weakness. And that can actually hurt your customers, your business, and your bottom line. How?

When you perform the same repairs, replace the same equipment, answer the same questions, experience becomes routine. Routine can become “rote”. Before you know it, every day is just another day on the job.

And “rote” quite often becomes “rut”.

Now please, hear me when I say this:

Nothing will kill your business faster than getting stuck in a rut.

This profit-killing cancer infects every part of your business. Don’t believe me? See if you recognize any of these symptoms:

Your CSR stops trying to actually provide service and you (and your customers) may begin to hear things like, “Well that’s our policy.”
Your techs may start by being a little sloppier on the job – no foot covers, not trying for the upsell. This can escalate into actual mistakes; and unhappy customers.
You find your business dictated by the weather or your competition.
There’s a general air of sluggishness rather than excitement around the office and with the staff.

See, sometimes “experience” operates as a blinder to the things that made customers choose you in the first place:

Differentiation.

Your customers didn’t choose you because you were just like everyone else.

They picked you because something about you stood out from the hundreds of contractors available to them. The mistake is in thinking your differentiation is a one-time event.

You don’t have to follow every fad, or spend thousands chasing “the next big marketing thing”. But loyal customers have to choose you over and over again:

5 Quick Ways to Get Out of the Rut and Put Your Competition on the Run

Market like you mean it – That means sending out quality print pieces, not something your babysitter threw together in study hall. It means sending emails and reports that reinforce your USP (unique selling position). It means engaging the 21^st century through video, social media, and customer reviews. Falling down in this area is like taking a shovel into the rut to dig it even deeper. Call us if you need help
Newsletters as gifts – Have some extra customer retention newsletters printed, let techs hand them to new customers on each service call. They cost pennies to hand out, for zero postage and make a great first impression.
Handwritten thank you notes. This step begins the referral process with huge impact. Every tech should always have a stock of thank you cards and pre-stamped (not metered) envelopes either in the truck or available at the office for him or her to fill out with a brief, personal note of thanks. You couldn’t afford to buy the goodwill this simple act will produce.
Yard signs, safety cones, truck Signage, uniforms: Each of these shout a professional image but can be amazingly inexpensive. Once you’ve got them, the ‘per impression’ costs go down every time used, and make a huge visual impact for passers-by. The more impressions, the greater the company notoriety and credibility.
Use your experience to redefine their You “sell” customers your confidence and competence in exchange for making their “pain” disappear. That doesn’t come in a box and it’s not on Aisle 7 (I already checked.) It comes from the way you listen, how you understand their problems, present the solution and package it with guarantees. Your follow-up cements the relationship and jogs referrals.

Make yourself unique and memorable, helping customers separate you from “everyone else” who just blends in. When you put these tools in place, customer acceptance and appreciation will seem very obvious, and soon enough, you’ll be looking back and saying, “No wonder that worked. It was a great idea.”

Readers can get a free Customer Retention Kit and a complimentary subscription to the Sales & Marketing Insider newsletter by sending a polite request to freeACCAstuff@hudsonink.com or by calling Hudson, Ink at 1-800-489-9099. Visit us at www.hudsonink.com for many other free marketing articles and reports.

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Adams Hudson

President at Hudson, Ink.

Adams Hudson is president of Hudson, Ink, a contractor marketing firm serving the contractor trades, and ACCA’s national marketing partner. Readers can receive a free subscription to Adams’ Sales&Marketing Insider eNewsletter by emailing a polite request to freeACCAstuff@hudsonink.com.