Contractor Marketing That Works

Contractor’s Retention Program Pays Big Dividends

Allen Kent, president of  Kent Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., is a believer in customer retention newsletters. 

“Showing someone, like your customers, that you care makes all the difference in today’s business environment,” he said.  “Why does our company have a 2-3 week backlog of work with more on the way when others in the area are struggling during these challenging economic times?  The key for our company has been the HomeWords customer retention newsletter we mail to our existing client base twice per year.”

Kent has been utilizing HomeWords for about two years now, and the impact it has made is very apparent. 

“On numerous occasions I have met people in public that have commented to me that they received our newsletter,” Kent said.  “We redeem coupons in the newsletter frequently, which ‘reactivates’ our existing customer base.  Customers even comment that they know they chose the right company to do their work because we continue to reach out, and they still feel great about their buying decision.”

For Kent, the newsletter is easy work that pays big dividends.  “I spend about 20 minutes choosing my coupons and ads for the newsletter issue, email the proof to Hudson Ink, Hudson Ink gets it ready and ships the newsletters directly to my direct mail service, and away it goes,” he said.    

Kent is also a believer in newsletters because he’s seen how the whole process comes to fruition when the customer takes the next step.  For example, last Fall’s newsletter brought results within days when a customer the company hadn’t done business with since 2005 purchased a system and pulled out his coupon from his newsletter to use towards the purchase.  “We had no competition on the proposal, didn’t cut the price (except for the coupon), and the customer bought from us because we kept reaching out to him with our newsletter,” Kent said. 

“Having a newsletter program is vitally important,” he said.  “I used to hear, ‘Allen, every time I see your ads you’re always trying to sell something.’  Now I hear comments like ‘we chose Kent Heating and Air Conditioning because your reputation in the community is second to none!  You really show your customers you care!’”

As pleased as he is with the results he’s been seeing, Kent sees the customer retention newsletter as just one part of a successful customer retention program.  “The changes we made earlier that are driving our business are 1) customer retention newsletters, 2) thank you cards from the salesmen to the customer on every residential replacement/commercial job, 3) doing my follow-up thank you ‘love calls’ consistently after every job, 4) growing our service agreement base and keeping a high renewal rate through marketing, and 5) (and this is a big one) my office staff is now a marketing machine constantly mailing out letters to customers and prospects (with incentives in place for making sales on service agreements)."

And the dividends just keep coming – for his company as well as for his satisfied customers.