After some time in the office cleaning business you will learn that not all customers will be happy customers. There are many reasons for this.
Most problems are the result of a lack of communication from the beginning.
Unhappy customers will manifest themselves in different ways.
1. Sometimes what the customer asks of you during the bidding process is not really what they want done. For instance they may say they just need “light” cleaning. You soon realize that “light” means more than you ever thought possible. Before long you’re expected to be working in areas that you were never supposed to clean.
3. At other times the person that walked you through and told you what needed to be done had no real clue as to the cleaning requirements. In this case you are making the person who walked you through happy but not the individual who is writing the check. Not a good situation to be in. YOU think you’re doing a good job, the person who hired you is getting complaints from on ‘HIGH’; someone is going to get blamed- guess who that is!
3. Some other examples include asking for work you never contracted to do such as window blind cleaning, not merely dusting:
A great way to diffuse these misunderstandings is to refer to the work schedule that was created in the first place (of course this assumes you carefully constructed a work schedule that mirrors what the customer wanted at that time). Tactfully discuss with the customer that the issues that are being raised were not mentioned at the time of the bidding.
Having the bid in front of you while you discuss this is key. State that you are looking at the agreement and see no mention of these issues being addressed during the bid process. Make sure to leave an “out” for the other party by mentioning that you would be happy to work up a price to address the increased responsibilities.
Provided the customer is reasonable, this approach should work. Most people understand how misunderstandings can occur and will work to straighten it out.At the end of the day communication is paramount. Go over the work schedule line by line with the customer before ever starting work. This alone will prevent most of these type issues from ever arising. Making sure everyone is on the same page will make the customer happier and your life much easier. AND, a retained customer is a profitable customer!!!
More FREE hints are available at: http://makemoneycleaningoffices.com
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