A for Awesome or F for Failing – Where Do You Rank?
Report cards. Remember getting those in school…you remember those times, don’t you?
The end of the quarter comes and you would trudge along if you knew you didn’t get a good grade not wanting to show it to Dad or Mom or you would be bounding home in glee for the reward you might get for bringing home good grades. What’s your business report card?
Your business report card can be easy…or it can be hard. First, you must decide what your foundation for your business will be. What do you want to be known for? Write everything down, the words and phrases you wish to be known for and what you want to hear come out of your clients’ mouths at the end of the night and the weeks and months after their event. Now go back through your past surveys of your clients or if you don’t survey your clients google yourself or your company name and see what shows up for reviews.
Does the list of words and phrases you wish to be known for and what your client is saying about your match? If not…then you’ve got some homework to do. Let’s go back to class.
What your clients say about you both to your face and behind your back is your report card. If your report card is less than you want it to be it’s time to go to work. Report cards don’t always come at the end of the year…er event. My school system uses PowerSchool, which is an app that lets me daily monitor my kids’ grades. Pretty cool. Now I wouldn’t recommend, “daily bothering…er, monitoring” of your client’s thoughts about you as that would just be annoying.
However, if you don’t take the opportunity to ask them after the sale and even before delivery of service how their experience has been with you then you miss an opportunity for improvement. There are so many sales that are missed in between the point of booking to the point of delivery of product or services at the event that it would make your head spin. Key in on ways you can improve your product or service by asking your customer “What else can I help you with?” “If you could wave a magic want and have 1-3 things taken care of for you with your event planning…what would they be?” They may say nothing or they may just provide you with a new revenue stream that will help increase your bottom line. Remember all sales find a need and fill it.
That’s one way to take care of your clients during the sale. How about after the sale?
Survey your past clients and ask them this question “Out of all of the businesses you’ve encountered…what have been your favorite 3 to work with?” Are you on their list? Why or why not? You need to work harder to ensure that you’re creating a memorable connection with them. Why? Because if you do your name will be on the tip of their tongue whenever any of their friends ask for someone in your field because you did a phenomenal job vs. just an average job and now they can’t think of your name.