According to Small Business Administration data, contracting companies add on 75%-80% of their new business during the summer and winter seasons, with a whopping 60% coming between the months of May and August. That’s no shocker for most in the warmer climates, but when new opportunity knocks during our busiest times, it’s usually an unfortunate recipe for neglect and costly mistakes.

Think about it: If a new homeowner randomly gives you a call mid-April, during the doldrums of beautiful 70°F days, you’re ready to do backflips and write them a love poem. Hopefully, your tech shows extra special care (because he’s not exhausted and hurrying to his next appointment), and you take all the wise steps, like asking how they heard about you and showing over-the-top appreciation. Now, contrast that with the way a new potential customer might be treated if they call your company during the middle of the summer madness? I’m not saying the world should stop or a new customer should get automatically bumped to the front of the appointment list, but a few small tweaks in how you deal with them here could turn a one-time transaction into a valuable lifelong customer.

To add to the stats of first-time caller opportunities you’ll see during peak seasons mentioned above, current statistics show that contractors do a shockingly poor job of retaining these customers. Eleven percent of the average contractor’s database walks away each year: some are lured away by a competitor, others are lost to unavoidable factors like moving out of the service area or death. But the vast majority, 7% of the 11% lost, representing 70 homes per 1,000 in your database, leave each year because they felt like you didn’t care enough about their business to warrant a second call.

And even a time when you’re already stretched thin, this is certainly fixable; here’s how.

• Don’t Lose Track. It’s busy right now, but make sure the necessary processes are put in place to do proper follow-up with these new additions. Step No. 1 is to make sure these homes are flagged and segmented inside your database. If you visualize your customer database as just one large group, and you market to them all in the same way, you’re missing out on tremendous potential. These new customers should be added to a mailing list for a follow-up thank you or “welcome aboard” type letter as well as an information funnel about maintenance agreements and other services. If your company does customer newsletters (which we strongly recommend), make sure your tech has extra copies in the truck to hand the homeowner their first issue on the spot before adding them to the list for the next mailing. Put procedures in place to get them connected as soon as possible. If they slip your mind, you’ll slip theirs as well.
• Quality Communication Builds Relationships. Retention marketing is a different animal than what you normally see between companies and customers, but if you learn the art, you’ll see why the most successful companies put such priority on it. Loyalty can’t be bought; it must be earned. If the only time your customers hear from you is when you’re asking for them to buy, call, or spend, it won’t be long before they view the relationship as one-sided and predatory. Quality touches are communication where the service provider simply aims to add value and trust to the relationship. According to the Better Business Bureau, a healthy mix should be six to eight relationship-building touches showing care for their wellbeing to every one solicitation asking for action. When a homeowner knows you care about more than just their money, they’ll be much more likely to stay committed to your company.
• Realize What’s at Stake. It’s easy to think new first-time callers and new business always correlates to growth, but that’s usually deceptive. If those homeowners are not being engaged and continuing to buy long-term, they might have even cost you money. Many contractors don’t live in areas large enough to blow through customers without an effective retention plan. But even in highly populated service areas, if you factor in windshield time and a whole list of other expenses that go into a service call, you might not even make a profit until later visits or by keeping them engaged long enough to get that coveted replacement call. Direct response and retention marketing are so codependent, Dr. Frederick Reicheld of the Harvard Business Review said, “Trying to grow a company through active customer acquisition without equal effective customer retention is mathematically impossible.”

There is a fortune’s-worth of potential growth flowing through your dispatchers right now. Don’t let them come in your front door and then right out the back. Treat them right, make sure you have the processes and automated systems in place to engage, and you’ll build loyalty and valuable long-term relationships before they slip away.