When you own your own business, it’s inevitable that you will deal with demanding customers. You will quickly find that it’s not very enjoyable and not to mention stressful. Sometimes it can be a challenge to recognize these problematic customers from the start. Here are some things you should watch for…..
Never Ever Give Estimates Over the Phone. There will be times when a prospective customer insists that you give them an estimate over the phone. Trust me….never ever give phone estimates. What usually happens if you are hired over the phone is you end up pricing the job too low (just because you want and need the job) and every time you clean for that customer you are frustrated because you know you should be making more money.
Also what happens if you rush to get the job done, so it’s worth it to you. If you do an estimate by phone and you are hired to do the job, 90{7e488363c11ee5ef50445c8c4fa770b6e6e4f99e57faea264a05ac52abb3ffe0} of the time you will shoot yourself in the foot. You will find that most times, these people are just shopping around. They are calling different companies to see who’s the cheapest. Sometimes it may not matter about the quality of work they are getting, they are more concerned about the price.
Customers who criticize other cleaning companies. We all know that there are many legitimate reasons why a customer would fire house cleaning toronto. But when they tell you they have hired several in the past and they didn’t work out, more than likely their prior ten cleaning services could not satisfy them for many reasons. The outcome is… the customers will “bad mouth” that company affecting their reputation and a bad reputation is tough to repair. Our advice would be to avoid customers like this at all costs.
Watch for the customer who is never satisfied. We’ve all had that customer who is just never happy, no matter what you do. Unfortunately, you spend a lot of extra time and energy doing everything you can to satisfy them to no avail. However, some customers just like to complain and once you explain to them that you will do your best to fix the problem, most times they are happy with your response (sometimes they just need to be coddled). However, please know that there will be some customers that are to the extreme and you just need to politely let them know that you can no longer clean for them.
Some customers will always ask for more and more. Once you have been hired and have a signed agreement in place, be sure that you stick to that agreement. You will find those customers who will continually ask you or your employees to do something “extra.” When you agree, you are setting yourself up for more work than you are getting paid for. You need to be clear that any additional services will be extra money. These customers typically think that they are the only customer you have.
Customers who do not pay on time. When you service residential customers, you should expect payment at the time of service. Bring the invoice with you and leave it for them. Customers will occasionally forget to withdraw cash or will come up with an excuse as to why they cannot pay “today.” However, if you find this is an every time occurrence, and they are behind in payment, do not clean for them until they get caught up. When providing service to rental properties, it may be impossible for the customer to leave cash for you. That is when you mail or email a copy of their invoice. You can either do that upon completion of service or set up arrangements to collect payment before the ceremony. If you invoice the customer be sure to set a “payment due date” or “terms of payment” so your customer is aware of when payment is due.
Handling demanding customers takes patience, kindness, and knowledge. It’s difficult to not to take their criticisms personally. The best advice is to stay calm and ask the customer if you can allow them to resolve the problem. Be sure to inform customers that you welcome their concerns or complaints so your business can continuously improve its service.
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