The Best Pay-off You Can Get

Complete Pro

Last week I finished up a tough job for an older lady on a fixed income, and her daughter. It beat the hell out of me, but I stayed dedicated to it until the end. For most people I would have charged more for this work, but I had a good feeling about these customers and did the job for a reduced profit. Yesterday a got this in the mail:

Mr. Duncan,

"I am writing to tell you how pleased I am with the work you did for me, replacing the sub-floor, carpet pad and carpet in my master bedroom. I understand it was a small job compared to most of the work your company performs, as well as a challenge, and I appreciate you taking the job. Your work was exemplary, completed on schedule and all contract cost were accurate. Your conscientious, detailed and thorough attention to the work to be done at my home was a wonderful experience. I have had work done on my home in the past by other companies which left me feeling disappointed. In some cases, I had to have another company complete or re-do the work started. Your company is like a breath of fresh air. Your far exceeded my expectations. You are very professional, providing a written contract of all work, furniture moving, dust control, insurance and cleanup to be done with itemized cost prior to any work being started. I would highly recommend your company to anyone looking for work to be done on their home or business. Thank you again for the work you did and the way you did it. You and your company were the best choice I could have made for home repair. Please feel free to use my letter and any photos you took of the job as references and/or on your web site."

Sincerely,
Homeowner

I will definitely be taking the last line of her letter to heart. I know I could have made more money doing something else, but this is something that money can't buy, but can be used as a selling tool from now on. Do any of you guys or gals have any unique ways that you incorporate letters like these into sales pitches? I'm always open for suggestions.

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woodchuck2

You cant buy a reputation and the word of mouth is the best advertising. If you have an office then hang up the letter with photo's or keep an album to show customers your previous work for reference.

threaderman

Very nice

__________________
Joe ---International Code Council Member

Your plumbing & gas specialist proudly serving Oklahoma City OK, Moore, Warr-acres, Norman, Midwest City, Edmond, Bethany, Forest Park

handyhands

Put together a fairly simple, but nice neighborhood letter, "Dear Neighbors:......... You may have seen our trucks or vans in your neighborhood for the past week or so. Reason being, we've just had the pleasure of working for Mrs__________ at _________St. (Briefly describe what you did for Mrs.__________, then use her referral letter within the piece as well.)------(No better reference then that that comes from the mouth of a very satisfied customer.) Then, offer a description of the other services you offer. You need to have a "CALL OF ACTION"------(I generally use some sort of "neighborhood discount, could be 10%-20% savings on any new project scheduled by a certain date)---Then, go onto whitepages.com,(this is by all means a FREE search site--I use it relentlessly) do a "reverse search". Type in the name of the street you did the work on for Mrs._____________. Keep in mind, DONT PUT HER STREET NUMBER--JUST THE NAME OF THE STREET SHE LIVES ON--and it will give you the names, addressess and phone numbers for every resident on that street. You could even broaden your prosepective mailing list by doing a mapquest, getting the names of the other streets surrounding that job, and mail to them as well. Heck, if you REALLY wanted to, you could send the letters,..wait a day or 2 for them to "hit"....Then follow up with a call to each person you mailed to, again introducing yourself as __________from __________ company, and were simply calling to make sure they receved your letter. What a perfect time to re-introduce yourself as well as your services, and merely ask them if by chance they're considering any improvements in the near future?

And if you decide you want to implement doing something like this, you may as well want to reserach the idea of getting a bulk-mailing permit at your local post office....cuts the costs of mailing a letter in 1/2.

Call it what you want, but it works for us.

Good Luck!!

WisePainter

I get a queasy feeling in my stomach when I think of advertising that way.

If it is necessary to go door to door than maybe you need better "word of mouth".
I have actually dispatched a few of those types of door hangers as I enter the home to begin work.



Glad it works for you though.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

handyhands

we get ALOT of referral business, actually,..but we also cover all bases of advertising as well, and call it what you want, but if you aren't direct/ target marketing around existing job sites--you very well could be leaving a valuable resource of potential leads untapped.

Beats the crap out of buying 10 service magic leads to get one homeowner to answer the phone and tell you that they're looking to replace the plexiglass on their sunroom.

smadax

Sounds like some very powerful advertising methods, I like it!

davitk

Sounds like a job I did back in 1997 shortly after hanging out my shingle. After the job was complete and I was able to pay myself a whole 5.00/hr, I heard back from the customer how pleased he was and that I was "the only honest carpenter in Madison" -

It also sounds like you provided PRICE, QUALITY and SERVICE

Be careful that's not what you become known for, a good friend contractor is currently going through divorce court for being such a good guy; that is, to the customer





Sorry for being such a downer, that is a terrific customer testimonial and use it use it use it.