Many years ago, I read that marketing a service successfully is more like high school than college. The most popular thrive. Just when you thought you were a grown-up, it’s back to a popularity contest. Yes, you should provide great service and be good at what you do, but all things being equal, when marketing something intangible, it is often impossible to separate the service from the provider. So customers need to like you.
I once had a great employee that was very talented, but at the end of the day on a job site he wanted to go back to his hotel room and read or watch television, and his reputation and customer list wasn’t growing. I finally told him that it was part of his job to take someone out to dinner every night while traveling. I preferred it to be the customer, but it could be others that we worked with as long as he was getting out there. He had the whole package: charm, intelligence and a great sense of humor, but he was keeping it a secret. Though his expense account soon grew, so did his list of loyal customers.
When it’s all said and done, service is time. If a service is not what your customer expected, they can’t return it and get their time back, so it’s your job to make sure they enjoyed the time. This reality creates the need for a different set of rules. You are now marketing yourself—creating a reason why customers should spend their time with you instead of your competition. The three-martini lunch is a thing of the past, but charming customers (who can refer other customers) is still very much in fashion. Remembering birthdays, family members and favorite sports teams of customers—and simply being nice—is marketing you and your business.
It’s tough to compare services, and sometimes it comes down to the person providing the service more than the service itself that brings your customers back.
-Dianne McKay
Director of Business Development