Internet Lead Generating Company.

ultimatetouch

I just looked into the mailing list and found some psycho customer had complained about me through angies list. I currently have a lean for 1100 dollars on her house. they put the mask on until it would come down to a check then they would play the games. I bent over backwards and did an incredible job on there bathroom. I called up angies list because this lady completly slandered my business. Everything was inacurate. I only had one customer in the past few yrs that I had a problem with. My point is the guy from angies list said you could pay 50 dollars for your customers to sign up, ask them to do a brief testimonial for you. I will start doing that this yr since I think it will pay for itself. Oh an angies list is making the lady show proof because of the slander she wrote. She said things like he never showed up and he left things unfinished, this was completely false, I completely finished and went to collect my money after getting the run around, her huband said we paid you enough get the hell out of here before I call the cops.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Grumpy

Hah if you never showed up, how can you start things to leave them unfinished?


So explain that to me. I pay $50 then invite my customers to write testimonials? Sounds interesting. I currently use a few free ratings services, certainteed, i-rate, respond.com, contractor.com.

ultimatetouch

I just got a call today from contractors.com I didnt even know I was on it. Your just paying there membership, angies is on top oof almost every keyword that i could think of. I know a door guy that stays busy just through them. Grumpy I noticed you dont use adwords anymore at least it doesnt shop up over here. My adwords are doing much but costing me money write now. Im located at 290 and harlem ave.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Ed the Roofer

There is a half way decent greasy spoon restaurant right next to the U-Haul. You were talking about the Eisenhower Expy & Harlem, right?

Ed

ultimatetouch

That sounds rght but I havent ate there.
Ed where are you located?

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Grumpy

Contractor.com is free if you sign up for their free service.

HepaCore

I posted this in another disscusion forum, this posting is getting more views:

I spoke to a web-based company today about Leads vs. Referrals. They offered this below:
Put on your thinking cap - this is the busy part and want your feedback. Through an escrow account you (contractor) sustain, they pay out referral fees to your customers. You tell them to provide your previous customers a 50.00 referral fee for new work completed. Your previous customers direct friend/neighbors to an Angie's List type wesite to find you. Once you complete the work, the company sends a check to the referring customer.

I assume the referred customer hands you a piece of paper saying they were referred and by whom. You go back to the shop, verify it, and boom - check is sent.
You can get your money back at any time from the escrow and the first 6 months are free.. You get all the reviews like Angie, referral process, and able to provide great deals to word-of-mouthy customers.

Laaa-deeee-daaaah.... I was actually thinking about doing a business like this.. Someone beat me to the bunch.

DamionR

Everyone is missing one big point about lead referral companies.


They don't know you....


all they know is that they submitted their info through some website to get help with a project.

So when that company refers the lead to you (rather exclusive or not)... they still do not know you.

So even if the lead is exclusive - do you think the customer will stop looking around just because XYZ lead company only referred you?

Of course not.

More importantly than how many companies the lead is referred to... or even the price of the lead....

is how you make your company stand out.

Sure - a quick phone call is a good first start (hell, that's a lot better than most companies do)

But imagine this scenerio...

Your company calls the customer 15 minutes after they submit. You schedule an appointment.

I call the customer 20 minutes after they submit. I probe to find out what their needs are. I thank them for scheduling the appointment. I put them into my autoresponder program that sends them a few emails about our services, how we help solve their problems, testimonials they can read/listen to, coupons... as well as a mailer with additional information. As well as a confirmation call to reconfirm we are coming out at the scheduled time.

You get the idea. All of these thigns are really nothing... but they truly set you apart in the customer's "initial thoughts".

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Ed the Roofer

UltimateTouch,

Out in Carpentersville, Dundee, Elgin, and Algonquin area. Office and shop in Carpentersville.

I meet a cousin of mine at that restaurant on the way down to some of the Bears games. Easy to get back on the Ike to Soldier Field.

I used to live in Little Village and in Cicero though.

Ed

Grumpy

All of that will have an upsetting result on some customers. I could see a one page estimate confirming the time of the appointment being sent after the initial conversation with liinks to the items you described, and peraps one more the day before the appointment to confirm again. I totally agree with a phone call the day of the appointment to confirm (that has saved me wasted driving a few times) but I try not to over-do it, especially with the e-mails.

People covet their e-mail and sending them too much will cause them to think of you as a spammer and could seriously cost you a job.


I get the point though. You are saying, be a peacock and spread your feathers. Do something to be over the top and stand out... and that is good advice.

Ed the Roofer

One thing to consider about all of the follow up calls.

I contacted SM last year to get pol quotes, (before I was on this board pool guys), and the pool dealers secretary called back promptly.

Then she called my office again to verify and confirm the appointment.

Then, the day of the appointment, about 3-4 hours before our 8:00 P.M. agreed to time, she called the office again. I was not there and my secretary was gone for the day already and even though they also left another message on my home #, I didn't get it until I rushed home to be there ahead of time.

Well, since they didn't get ahold of me to confirm the appointment for a 3rd time, they cancelled and wanted to reschedule. Man, was I ticked off. I could have been doing my own presentation with someone instead. They wanted to reschedule, but I said heck with them.

After an appointment is scheduled, a phone call the day before or earlier, on the day of, as a reminder is sufficient. Too much contact can work against thev sale before hand, if not for a different reason.

As Damion said, after I schedule the measure appointment, I will send out or leave some information. If the presentation appointment is scheduled more than a few days after the measure call, then I send some more information in the mail to keep my company profile fresh in there mind.

Ed

Grumpy

I call to confirm 99% of my appointments and if I am unable to speak to someone I assume we are on schedule. Infact that's what I say on the machine. ..just calling to confirm our 6 pm appointment today. I'm packing up to hit the road on my way over, I'll see you soon. Call me on my cell phone if you need to get ahold of me sooner."

Floorwizard

Same here.

That's what cell's are for....

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

DamionR

Yup to that grumpy. Even if they forgot...they'll feel obligated to listen to you since you drove over to their home and they are the ones that made the mistake.

If they won't do the appointment - you'll probably want to make them work to get you back there. In the cases where this has happened to me - I make them jump through hoops. Something like telling them to call my office on Tuesday between 4 and 5 when I'll be available to set up another appointment. If they miss that timeframe - I turn down the business. If they do - I can honor their attempt to rectify the mistake. it shows they really want to hear from you.

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dougchips

I never confirm appointments. When I set one I tell the people that I do not confirm appointments and will be there when I promised. To follow up on this I am on their street 15 minutes before my appointment. Once in a while I have a no show and I feel this is better then giving people with cold feet a way out.

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DamionR

One thing I've found in pre-marketing material - get rid of the fluff.

Here's an example for one of my old projects... selling niche advertising...

prior to my appointment the prospect received the following emails:

1) A thank you email that reconfirmed the appointment date/time... with bulleted points of the information I would be reviewing with them

2) a second email (next day) from my assistant that simply said "Damion wanted me to send you this link - www.xyz.com/stats - it shows you stats on demographics for your local region. He thoguht it would be helpful for you tknow this information."

3) A third email (day prior to appointment) that included one super-strong testimonial.. a link to a page with more testimonials (if they wanted to view them)... a link to "ad packages", and another confirmation for the appointment.

Most important here. At no point was there any fluff about how great I was, or we were, or what we could do, or anything like that. I sold the sizzle with straight facts - bulleted points of info, and links to additional information if they wanted to read it. Though there was a ton of different info they could get to from the links, it wasn't pushed on them.

By dripping the info slowly to them... the prospect was able to absorbe most of it. With this method... I had a much higher-qualified, and educated consumer. It's always nice when the prospect tells you "I want you to give me what you gave this guy". Yes Sir

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ultimatetouch

Do all of you guys call your Internet leads back in 15 minutes. I doubt I would be opening them up that quick in about a month.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Grumpy

Honestly Ultimate... At the last company I did most of the sales myself and yes I was on those leads like stink on poop. Fast! Then when I was a one man show, after I started this company I was damned fast, Hey I had nothing better to do However I run a larger orginization now and as we grow we get a little bit less efficient. So NO I don't call back within 15 minutes anymore.

I should, I know I should... and I also know that's why lead services do not work for me as well as they used to. However by having bad experiences with the lead services it has forced me to trim the fat and drop the lead services which were the poorest.

Cole

Great info!

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ultimatetouch

Grumpy I gotta ask you again, why dont you do adwords anymore? I dont see your add up. I have spent about $200, 5000 impressions, 86 clicks and no estimates. only 4 leads. I dont know where I am going wrong here, a lot of people are doing addwords with success it seems.
I am thinking about quitting it and signing up for a few more lead services. Lead services are new to me but I think there cool if you get good ones. The one lead service is doing well for me but I have been allover it. I have some estimates out right now that if they pull through lead services will be as good as any advertising Ive done.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois