Some companies have an exceptionally high quality clientele.
Their customers have their carpet cleaned regularly.
Their invoices are unusually high.
The cleaners are paid top dollar for their services and their customers provide them with an abundance of similar quality referrals.
What's the secret? How did those companies get all the "best" clients while their competitors have to deal with typical "leftovers?"
The answer is not that these companies provide the absolute best cleaning service or have an especially effective advertisement campaign.
The companies with the best customers don't use magic or just get lucky — they take control and intentionally shape their clientele list.
Wanted: Any customer
Most cleaning companies welcome and service equally any and all consumers.
Many times, this acceptance of any and all customers is the result of fear. These operators believe they need every dollar they can get.
This might be true when they are just starting out, but this attitude severely limits the growth of any company that wants to go beyond the "average success."
Small business owners cannot service everyone; they have time constraints.
That's why it's important to encourage the more profitable and enjoyable consumers while actively discouraging those who are not.
If you don't, the less desirable consumers will use up your limited time and energy and thereby prevent you from servicing better ones.
There are five requirements to establish an exceptionally profitable clientele:
- Strive for quality as opposed to quantity.
Seeking "more profitable customers" rather than "any new customers" will change how you do business.
You must change the image you project of your company, the quality of service you provide and the prices you charge.
Focus your services to meet the specific needs of more profitable consumers.
- Maintain a growing company.
Create a marketing system that not only provides a continuous flow of new customers, but also keeps past customers loyal to you.
- Be willing to give up some of your customers.
Many business owners find this part incomprehensible.
Raising your prices, or in some cases telling customers that you can no longer service them, is hard. But, if you don't choose which customers to sacrifice, the customers themselves will decide.
Unfortunately, it's usually your better ones that leave.
- Create an objective rating system.
This will help you determine the relative value of your customers.
You need to know specifically which customers make up the top 15 percent and the bottom 15 percent of your client base.
- Always provide a good value and professional service.
This should be applied to every consumer you encounter, but the top 15 percent should receive preferential treatment.
The bottom 15 percent should be dropped from your follow-up system, offered less desirable scheduling time slots, charged slightly higher rates and, in some cases, politely and professionally informed that you can no longer service them.
The bulk of your clientele — the 70 percent in the middle — is the bread and butter of your business and should continue to receive your standard level of quality service and priority.
A customer's rating should determine how you respond.
Picture the following scenario.
It's a Friday evening and you are just sitting down to enjoy dinner after a long, summer workday.
An emergency spotting call comes in.
If it is someone in your top 15 percent, put your dinner on hold and respond to the emergency.
If this is a mid-rated customer, call him or her right back and advise them on what they can do immediately. Then arrange to go to their house first thing Monday morning if he or she needs further assistance.
For a customer rating in the bottom 15 percent, don't even consider returning the call until at least Monday, and don't schedule a trip out there until it is convenient for you, if at all.
Price increase
Another way to shape your clientele is to raise your prices.
When you have more customers than you need, raise your prices to keep the amount of work at a level you can handle.
You don't have to charge everybody the same price. Increase your prices on your lowest rated customers first and work your way up your rating scale.
Typically, your less desirable customers will tend to "self select out" and drop off first.
This might seem like a cold and heartless way to deal with consumers if the concept of intentionally rating and shaping your client base is new to you.
When done properly, consumers won't be aware they are being treated differently.
Your best customers should think that you treat everyone with the same preferential treatment that you are showing them.
Those customers you discourage will simply assume you are very busy and you had to raise your prices accordingly.
The bulk of your customers in the middle should continue to receive a good value from you.
Think of it this way: Gardeners know that it is often necessary to "thin" fruit trees.
In certain years, a healthy tree might produce an overabundance of fruit. This abundance is bad for the tree if the branches break from the weight of the fruit.
Instead, some of the healthy young fruit is pruned off to allow the remaining fruit more room to develop and ripen fully.
The result is a healthier tree.
It might produce slightly less fruit, but that fruit is of superior quality.
When you intentionally discourage the bottom 15 percent of your customer base each year and encourage your most profitable customers, the 70 percent in the middle will continually increase in value.
This process is intended to improve the quality of those customers in the middle.
Systematically repeating it each year improves the overall quality of your client list.
You don't need to hire someone or get another truck just because you start to get busy.
Resist the temptation to expand.
Consider improving the quality of your clientele as a way to make your business more profitable.
Steve Marsh is the creator of the Be Competition Free Marketing Program. He is a 30-year veteran of the carpet cleaning industry, an IICRC-approved instructor and a Senior Carpet Inspector. Marsh is a marketing and business consultant who provides a turn-key program for attracting better customers. For more information, log on to www.BeCompetitionFree.com.
