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Tapping into the referral source inherent in each new customer |
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Wednesday, 02 May 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 Suppose every customer that brought a vehicle to your shop for
repair brought along 10 more customers for you. As one customer became
10 and 10 customers became 100 and 100 became 1,000, you would soon be
maxed out. Yes, this is a fantasy because every customer will not bring
in 10 referrals. But even so, every customer is capable of many more
potential referrals than 10 and it’s up to you to draw out those
referrals.
How do you do that? You start when the customer comes into the shop and fills out the customer information form. Most shop personnel breeze right past this incredible referral opportunity. All they want is a driver’s license, the registration document and the key. Now they have the name, address and license number of the driver and the VIN and license plate number of the vehicle. With the key in hand, they’ve got the job and are ready to start repairs.
Seeing the future in every customer
What’s wrong with that? If we only lived in the now moment, all would be well. But that isn’t the case. We have a future to contend with. There are future salaries, future bills and future taxes and only future jobs will pay for all of that. So personnel processing the information of new customers will need to see the future in that customer, and not just the future delivery of the car a week or so later. They have to be able to look past the immediate presence of that customer and envision that person’s family, friends, employer, employees and other service providers as potential customers. If everyone in the shop learned to see each customer as a walking depository of at least 10 jobs, they would begin to understand the customer’s real value -- and the very real loss if that value is not tapped.
So how does a conscientious, future-oriented customer service representative tap into that customer’s mental database? A well-designed customer information form is a good start as long as the customer is given the time and a bit of a push to fill it in (contact me if you need a good form). That form will ask for the birthdays and anniversaries of husbands, wives, children and grandparents. It will provide a space to write the customer’s company or employer. And of course it will request insurance agent information.
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