3 reasons home builders and remodelers should focus on customer follow-up

Customer follow-up is critical for business success. A consistent follow-up process makes it much easier to hit your sales targets, streamline your business, reduce costs and dazzle your customers.

In other words, a well-developed customer follow-up process helps grow your business.

And yet, many business leaders struggle to develop a consistent, repeatable customer follow-up process. It takes time and intentional effort. There’s almost always something else vying for your time. Plus, while the payoff is very real, it’s often not immediate.

In this guide, we’ll highlight three ways home builders and remodelers benefit from a customer follow-up process. Plus, we’ll provide some tips on how you can jump-start your customer follow-up process, even if you’re brand new to customer follow-up.

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Why follow-up matters

Customer follow-up isn’t just a nice value-add. It’s a core part of the overall selling process. And if you use customer follow-up strategically, it can definitely help you win more business.

Here are 3 reasons why customer follow-up matters for home builders, remodelers and home service professionals.

1. Prospects rarely buy right away

Sales typically don’t close the first time you talk to a potential new customer. Instead, it takes persistence to develop relationships, identify problems and offer solutions.

If you don’t follow up after the first communication, you’re leaving business on the table. (Business your competitors will be more than happy to collect.)

There are several reasons a lead may not buy right away, including:

• Budgetary issues
• Lack of time
• Too many other priorities
• A misunderstanding of your business or its services

None of these necessarily reflect poorly on your business. But they do highlight obstacles you’ll need to overcome to book a job.

Solutions take time

If now isn’t a good time, when is? If costs are a concern, how can you create more value? If other priorities are top of mind now, how can you make your solutions the top priority?

Sorting through these questions typically takes a bit of time and finesse. If you try to force a sale too quickly, you’ll lose it altogether.

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Patience for the win

A “no” the first time doesn’t mean you’ll always be rejected. In fact, hanging in there and building credibility through a true dialogue is a good way to turn a “no” into a “yes.” And your follow-up process can make that happen.

Through regular customer follow-up, you can keep your company top of mind and continue to develop a genuine relationship. With each communication, you’re laying the groundwork for future business.

2. Consistent follow-up creates awareness

Customers won’t buy from you if they don’t know who you are.

If you reach and your lead says now is not the time, they aren’t necessarily going to remember you in a year when it is a good time. Even if they initiated contact with you.

Don’t be pushy

The temptation for many business leaders is to try to stay on a prospect’s radar by constantly asking for the sale. But if you do that, you risk pushing your potential customers away.

No one wants to be harassed into buying. So we recommend you follow up with prospects in ways that aren’t pushy, demanding or overly-aggressive.

Time to learn

Think about this waiting period as a time to collect data and get to know your lead. A well-timed survey, for example, can serve as messaging that’s not directly sales-oriented while keeping your lead aware of your company.

A survey is a great option because through it, you can ask questions that set you up to close the deal when the timing is right. For example, ask when they typically decide to purchase, what factors are most important in their decision-making, and even what they think of your company.

If the survey is well-crafted, you can gain a lot of insight while providing a highly-customized sales process.

3. Communication builds relationships

Selling is deeply tied to relationships. As just about any salesperson will tell you, the decision to buy is almost always an emotional decision—even when the buyer thinks it’s purely rational.

Continued communication throughout the entire sales process allows you the opportunity to build the kind of relationships that lead to ROI.

Invested in your customers

We’ve already discussed how pushy sales tactics can drive homeowners away. In contrast, effective customer surveys create awareness and give you better insight into your customers.

But you shouldn’t think of surveys as a Trojan horse hiding a sales pitch. Instead, think of them as a two-way road of communication.

Building relationship, investing in your customer, and providing a custom-tailored sales process aren’t just buzzwords. They’re foundational sales concepts that will make the entire experience better for your customer and better for your company.

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Making your company better

When you adjust your marketing, sales process or operations in response to customer feedback, you’re demonstrating that your company is a thoughtful one.

That kind of change won’t just lead to a sale with a specific client. It makes your whole organization better.

Armed with the knowledge you gain from customer feedback surveys, you can ensure your services create long-term value. And because you know your customer’s needs, you’ll be able to articulate how that value is created.

This creates a loop.

1. You get to know your customers better.
2. They help you make your services better.
3. You go out and win more customers as a result.
4. Repeat.

Getting started with surveys now

It’s easy to see why we’re passionate about surveys. They can make a powerful difference for your business, even driving decision-making through the sales process.

If you’re interested in getting started with customer feedback surveys right now, here are a few ways you can get the ball rolling.

• Call one of your long-time customers right now. Have a casual but open conversation. Ask them what they like, what they don’t like, and what they think you could be doing better.
• Tell your team to end as many calls as possible by asking for feedback. Don’t just seek feedback from the folks who buy. Ask the homeowners who don’t buy why you didn’t win their business, too.
• Sit down with your team and start working on a more strategic, long-term customer survey process.
• Partner with an industry leader who can help you develop and deliver powerful customer feedback surveys to ensure you get the most out of your customer’s insights.

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