It
may seem counterintuitive but offering a better warranty than your competition
actually makes you money. The reason is you overcome one of the best buying
objections a customer has when making a purchasing decision and it separates
you from being “just like the rest” to being “above the rest.”
How
you offer the warranty is different, but in all the trades I’ve worked with as
a flooring business consultant it comes down to being clear on what the exact
offer is and how good you are at tracking the source of callbacks.
Callbacks
are why we as owners are hesitant to make longer warranties on the repairs and
replacement work we do. Truth is, you need know your callback rate, such as five
calls out of a 100 calls done would come back for a sales, operational or
technical reason. That’s why you need the CSR to use a Callback form and the
Service Manager needs to verify if it’s a legit callback or not.
Once
you know your callback rate and you know how to work with a budget, you can
adjust your selling price to cover the cost and give a bigger warranty than
most if not all of your competition.
Now,
if you want to get
reallygood, you drive the callback rate
down with excellent sales, operational and technical training. I do this with
my clients with Operations Manuals, written training curriculum, a training
center and a sales training curriculum. The longer the training is in place the
more dramatic the drop in callback rate and the higher the customer
satisfaction ratings climb.
Face
it … customers need a nudge to say yes to the work you’re proposing and the way
to move them along in the buying process is with a peace-of-mind warranty. Do
this and watch your sales go up!
Note:
If you’d like a copy of the CSR Callback Form, e-mail me atal@appleseedbusiness.comand I’ll be
happy to send it along.
