Are You Building Trust with Your Customers?

There’s an old-school youth camp game you may have joined in on at some point – a snipe hunt. Although there actually is such a thing as a snipe, this particular game sends kids out hunting an imaginary creature of various descriptions. The gag is, they won’t find it because it doesn’t exist.

It’s a game. It’s been fun for generations. But the snipe hunt is just a practical joke – no one’s bagging a snipe that night.

So, what could this possibly have to do with contractor marketing, you ask?

Let’s put yourself in your customer’s shoes – and their sneaking suspicion that they’re about to invite a contractor to their home who’s eager to conduct an expensive hunt for a non-existent problem.

You’re an honorable contractor, so we’re not talking about you. However, like a lot of industries, residential contracting has some bad elements too. For example, when a community experiences a lot of storm damage, a scammer will come knocking on neighborhood doors and offer a low-priced repair for just half up front. Yet they take the half and skip town without doing any work at all (or various variations of that con game).

Neighbors, news reports and social media spread the word about “be careful who you trust to make home repairs.” Suspicion sets in. In the meantime, your customers have also heard about contractors who charge too much, do schlocky work and push for a replacement when a repair will do.

So, now this customer who’s been informed about all these concerns has a problem with their heating and cooling equipment. They don’t know what’s wrong. They can’t fix it themselves. They’ve got to call somebody, but they don’t know who they can trust.

If they see you as the contracting version of the “snipe hunter,” they’re concerned you’re going to open up their equipment, move some things and, all of a sudden, announce you’ve discovered an imaginary problem. They may be concerned you’re going to report back to them, “It’s a lost cause. We’ve got to replace your system. If you’ll just fill out this form and print your Social Security Number legibly, we’ll help you arrange financing of a huge bill each month for the next three years.”

Or maybe, hopefully, they’ll see you like that other old-school game – the trust fall. This, as you may recall, is where one person standing in front of another person falls backward and expects that their friend will catch them before they hit the ground. Some are quick to give it a try. Others hesitate. But the catch proves the trust was warranted the whole time.

Whether this game is actually fun or not continues to be subject to debate, but it still makes a point about trust.

Your customers need for their contractors to be trustworthy. When there’s a problem with their equipment, they want you to catch and repair the problem – with honesty and efficiency.

Trust is that unseen marketing element that is the basis of customer satisfaction. It’s the basis of a good image that generates strong word of mouth. It’s how you support customer retention, and it’s where your referrals come from. After all, people don’t recommend to their friends and family a contracting company they don’t trust.

Zig Ziglar said, “If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

To build trust:

Establish expertise within your market. Use your content marketing, videos, blogs and social media posts to build your company’s image, especially as a source of reliable and helpful information for the home.

Develop relationships with local media so that when reporters need someone to ask about industry concerns (such as rising energy costs or impending weather issues), they’ll think of you. You can also book yourself on local talk shows to discuss indoor air quality concerns, electrical safety, garden irrigation or other timely topics.

The idea is to become a face, a name, a source in your market that is easily identifiable as someone who serves customers well.

Amplify your expertise in your marketing. Your marketing doesn’t have to be big-budget with a lot of bells and whistles, but it does need to convey professionalism and integrity. For example, your digital ad should be neatly designed with a benefit-rich headline that takes visitors to a landing page with clearly written copy that defines the customer’s problem and the solution you can provide. In fact, everything with your name on it and your company’s marketing message should convey professionalism, including vehicle wraps, tech uniforms and printed invoices.

Deliver expertise on the job. Once your marketing brings you the chance to serve a customer, make it count. Deliver customer service at the highest level, including punctual arrival, quality installation and repair and fair pricing based on value. Then add to your value with courtesy, respect, cleanliness and other easy extras that show you care.

Follow up and stay in touch. Don’t lose what you’ve earned. Build your customer’s trust in you by following up. Check in to see that they’re satisfied with the work you’ve performed. Send a handwritten thank you note and stay in touch through a solid customer retention program. Remember, it doesn’t take rocket science to build trust. However, you can lose it quickly if you let down your customers. So, also be quick to address any areas where you may have slipped up if a complaint comes in.

If you’d like help building trust with your customers, give us a call at (800) 489-9099 or shoot us an email to [email protected] to get a coaching spot. Hundreds of customers have turned to us for powerful lead generation and retention strategies that are easy to implement and get results. We can help you too.