By Jeffrey Scott

In my seminars and via email I've often been asked about the issue of Clutter and how it can prevent clients from referring work to you. For those who haven't attended my seminars or tele-seminars, I should first explain what I mean by Clutter. Clutter can be a client having to ask you repeatedly to take care of a small, recurring issue, having to bug you to wrap up the final elements of a job that you never quite finish, or feeling they must remind you how they want you to communicate with them. These are probably small things to you, but to your client they're big.

Getting rid of the clutter in those client relationships can open the doors to more referrals.

How to Get Rid of Clutter?

Here is a quick overview:

First, get rid of any large outstanding issues. You know what these are, right? (Not always...)
Second, review each client/property and see if they had any problematic issues last year.
Third, assign someone in your company to establish a personal relationship with the client.
Fourth, perform your customer surveys in a way that guarantees you remove clutter and increase your chances of referral. (I'll write more about this in a future article.)
Fifth, analyze your systems and see if you have clutter BUILT INTO your processes!

Remove Large Clutter First.

Sometimes you have large clutter you simply aren't aware of. Look at your Accounts Receivable. If a client is withholding money, chances are there is something wrong that you have not solved. (Or you may not be good at setting expectations up front or enforcing collections. These aren't related to issues of clutter, but if you have problems here, then you will have a lot AR problems anyhow.)

Then ask around your company and see if there is any unfinished business. Put up a whiteboard someplace prominent, and write down all your unfinished business. A week of walking past this board and you will get these issues taken care of. Make these issues someone's priority--tie money to it if you have to, but make sure they are taken care of.

Once a Year

Once a year review your clients experience with your firm, and check to see if their idiosyncratic needs are being documented and met. EXAMPLE: many years ago We had a client who felt the need every spring to call us to make sure we opened his irrigation system properly. He was peeved that he had to call, but he was worried that there was a chance we might make a mistake and flood part of his basement. The problem didn't go way until we changed our systems and solved this issue, and then retrained him by calling him before he called us, to let him know that we now had it handled. The client went from a non referring client to a referring client.

In Season

In season you have a few opportunities to remove clutter by doing the following:

A) Ask them if they are happy. This is a question that must be asked multiple times, to give the client permission to share with you what is on their mind. The Japanese call this "5 Times Why," where they ask the same question 5 times, 5 different ways, in order to boil down to the core truth of an issue. This technique works when removing clutter; you ask the client 5 different ways if there is anything you can do to improve their experience with you. It is similar to when someone offers you something to drink when you are visiting their home. The first time you say no, the second time you say no thanks, but the 4th or 5th time you are more honest, saying "yes I would enjoy some iced tea." Same goes for boiling down to your clients core issues.

B) Make a quality control visit. This is a perfect opportunity to build a relationship. Try assigning a person to be responsible for ultimate quality control and relationship building with the client. It is ok to share quality control, but for the client's sake they need to know who is ultimately responsible for their property. Once trust is built up and the client sees that you are committed and that you care, they will share with you problems that they want solved. THE GOOD NEWS is that often these problems are sales opportunities. Removing the clutter can make you money AND make your client happier AND increase referrals! The more you visit a client, the more you will sell, and the more clutter you will remove.

In a future article I'll address points 4 and 5: How to perform customer surveys in a way that increases referrals. And, how to identify systematic clutter causing problems.

 

Jeffrey Scott is a business coach, consultant and author, and is known as the “marketing guru to the green industry.” He is co-owner of Glen Gate Pool & Property, where he grew the company to $10millon, increased client retention up to 98% and increased referral sales by 2000%!! For a FREE REPORT on “The 10 secrets to developing relationships that will propel your sales and referrals” e-mail him at Jeff@JeffreyScott.biz.

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