If you’re like most contractors, you’re about to hit a lull. It may not feel like that today if you’re taking a bundle of a/c emergency calls from super hot customers. However, the weather’s changing eventually, things will settle down soon and that lull is coming.
If you’re like most contractors, you also prefer to stay busy rather than wait for customers to get hot or cold again.
As you look ahead to your seasons, you can prepare for your lulls well in advance by creating a marketing plan that guides you through your year. Remember, the weather is not your marketing plan. It’s part of the SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis you use to create your plan.
Not having a marketing plan or creating it on the fly will lead to problems that you might not even realize you’re experiencing. Well, you may realize that you’re under stress as you try to go after every shiny object or wait for customers to find you when they don’t know you exist. But other low-performing results, including lost sales, poor image and wandering customers, as well as lack of focus for your employees are also effects of poor planning (especially when poor planning is actually “no” planning).
Your marketing plan is the forward-thinking structure that you create to map your way to success. Think of it as going on a journey from where you are in business to where you want to be. The market is who you want to be with; the right message attracts those people; the media is the car or vehicle; the budget is the fuel that determines your distance and speed. And all of these elements are wrapped within your marketing plan.
As you create this plan, keep in mind that the two times you don’t want to pull back on your marketing are 1) when things are busy or 2) when things are slow. When the market is active, your name needs to be out there so that you won’t lose customers to your competitors for years to come (especially if they install a replacement system with a long-term warranty). Secondly, when things are slow, you need to keep a steady presence when your competitors pull back on their marketing.
As you start developing your plan, you need to know your desired outcome. This takes digging into market research, your business model and your service offerings to envision what you actually want to achieve in terms of dollars earned, units sold, customers gained, members enrolled, reviews posted and followers engaged.
Part of this digging will also reveal additional services you could be offering. A maintenance agreement is certainly an opportunity to stay busy all year. Maintenance agreements enable contractors to provide service to the same customers year after year, assisting with steady cash flow and stronger customer loyalty. Customers benefit by getting priority service, discounts on repair parts, along with longer lasting, better functioning equipment.
You can schedule related tune-ups during your slow season, though you usually need to get customers enrolled during your busy season. That takes a few extra minutes at the end of a service call or installation to explain the MA value. It’s an easy sell, especially when you’re able to show that customers get a retroactive discount on the call you just completed.
You can also add other types of services, such as indoor air quality tests, which can solve customer problems that are occurring during fall and spring allergy seasons (when weather is milder).
In addition, establishing a subscription service for filter replacements is a good idea to help homeowners take care of their comfort systems. When you drop off a fresh filter, you will stay top of mind from a customer retention standpoint and also provide great relief for customers who can never remember to change this on their own.