You have to find a way to get your customer to believe they cannot get by without your services. No duh, right? How do you go about it though?
Share what you do to keep your customers not only coming back, year after year, but also bragging to their friends about you.
This is how I try to do it:
1. Show up on time, or call if running late. Customers do understand if a previous appointment or traffic has you behind, they do not understand if you can't be bothered to let them know.
2. Ask specific questions about the customer's expectations. Do they have any areas of their vehicle that really concern them? Are they primarily interested in a durable finish or one that blows them away? Paying attention to what the customer wants then exceeding it makes them very happy. I have one customer whose main concern is clean windows. I make sure everything else looks topnotch but I really do over his windows well because it doesn't matter how nice his fenderwells look if there are streaks in his windshield.
3. Get to know your customer's personally. Spend some time just talking to them. Learn their spouse's/kid's names. Pet their dog. Mention the local sports teams, etc.
4. Keep track of your customer's last details/wax jobs. Let them know a couple weeks in advance it is time for another wax/detail. If the current wax job is holding up well, let them know that and it would be okay to go another few weeks before rewaxing. Not only are you being honest, but you are putting their interests before yours. Maybe you won't get the extra $40-75 above the wash job for waxing that week but the customer will appreciate you being straight with them. It will pay off in the long run. If your customers trust you, they will continue to use your services and not hesitate to pass your name along.
5. Try to top yourself with every detail. Always try to improve. Stay on top of the latest products and techniques. Develop a good relationship with your vendors because they will then be more likely to give you a heads up when something new is coming out that will make your job easier and your details better.
6. Every once in a while, do something extra for your regulars. Not something that takes an hour to do but maybe clean the floor mats or apply a spray wax after a stretch of rainy weather. Just a little something extra occasionally as a thank-you for their continuing business.
I got a very nice phone call today. A customer's wife just bought her father-in-law's 99 Navigator and she said as soon as she got into it, she thought of calling me. Not that it was filthy or anything but she wanted it clean and properly waxed to start off with.