By Cheryl Savit Savvy Words for KitchenVisions
The April 6th meeting kicked off with networking at Verve, sponsored by CPS, Heating & Cooling Experts. The meeting began with announcements, then Phil Baldwin of CPS who spoke briefly about HVAC and sustainability. Roger Gallagher gave a brief overview of the Hiring and Training Employer Grant Program, HireNow, providing funding to eligible Massachusetts employers. Read more about HireNow here.
PRO NE President Cathy Follett introduced the program speaker, Tim Faller. Faller is known as the “Master of Production” and runs roundtable groups for Remodelers Advantage (sponsor of the April program). He hosts The Tim Faller Show podcast and is an RA senior consultant, working with remodeling companies throughout the United States and Canada.
When discussing “Client Experience Not Customer Service,” Faller pointed out that most customer service is reactive, while client experience is proactive. Additionally, Faller said that Research by American Express found that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience (Source: Superoffice.com).
“Client experience (also known as CX) is defined by the interactions and experiences your customer has with your business throughout the entire customer journey, from first contact to becoming a happy and loyal customer,” Faller explained. Most projects begin with the sales process when the client and remodeler get to know one another before moving into the production phase. Sometimes these two teams do not have the same information about the client.
Faller suggested seven ways to improve the CX:
- Have a clear customer experience vision
- Understand your customers
- Create an emotional connection with your customers
- Capture customer feedback in real-time
- Train the team based on client feedback
- Get regular feedback from the team
- Measure return on investment from a great customer experience
One of the ways to set expectations is with the pre-construction meeting. Weekly on-site meetings also work well to create an exemplary client experience when all stakeholders are present and clear lines of communication are open.
Checking in with clients all throughout the process and providing opportunities for clients to express their concerns often results in higher satisfaction with the project. Whether through formal surveys (Guild Quality) or informal assessments, getting honest feedback – and pivoting as needed – goes a long way toward an excellent client experience. Faller suggested training on-site team members to ask “Is there anything else I can do to make this a better experience for you?” The key is for the team to follow up on feedback received.
The bottom line always comes down to productive communication – between clients and the team and among the remodeling team on the project.
