So far we’ve seen that the only way for our business not to consume our life is to have it systemized in each of the three businesses that we all have: our Marketing Business, our Service Delivery Business, and our Client Retention Business. And it’s as simple as having all the things that we do written down and done that way every time.
I gave an example last time of how I’ve done that in my own business. I mentioned that when I first hired a technician I was worried that my clients would only want me to do the work. So I prepared them for my employee turning up for the job instead of me with a little script that worked very well including the casual manner of how it was said, noting the response from the client and adjusting accordingly.
Or as William Shakespeare put it...
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts...â€
‘As You Like It’
In other words... it was a little act. And that’s how we view our business. When we go to work we are actors acting out our business script. “This is how it’s done here...†We are always in control of situations even if it appears that we may not be. Just as an actor on stage is always in control and knows what he is doing.
All our interactions with prospects and clients are written down in our Operations Manual and we are always in control even if it appears that we aren’t. It’s all an act!
So when prospects phone us to ask “How much do you charge?†we have a scripted reply. We don’t just wing it. Even the way, that is, the manner of how we answer is documented. It’s a system and it works.
So how do you answer that question when a prospect phones...â€Can you give me a price for cleaning our carpets?â€
Our answer is always “No.†Well not quite like that. Here’s what we do and it’s written down on a script form. Our target market is high-end residential who can pay our prices for high quality work. We are not interested in price shoppers or tenants wanting their deposit back...so we have a script so that we don’t waste our valuable time with them.
Our system is very simple: we try to disqualify them!
In other words, we ask them questions to make them jump through a few hoops to prove that ‘we are made for each other’. And we tell them why we are asking these questions. We don’t want to waste each others time. Every week we turn away many phone enquirers because we tell them that “we are not the company for them.†After all, there’s no point in walking into a BMW dealer with £5000 to buy a brand new 3-series. We will just be wasting each others time.
In fact, I find this failure to target a market (high end residential, budget or whatever) and stick to it, one of the biggest time wasters that most carpet cleaners make. Our systemized scripts mean it’s not a problem for us.