As the video points out, adding a third person into what started as a two-person communication can become problematic when a customer chooses our company for their work. But remember, this all started because our company is interested in satisfying the NEEDS of a customer… usually a quite innocent and routine transaction! And while we can’t control the actions or motives of our customer’s, we can minimize any potential conflict by focusing on what we can control, and that is the communication between members of our team. It is worth any amount of time and detail it takes for our Estimator to be clear with their communication to the Technician regarding the scope of the work at hand.
We have all worked for customers who “tried to get one over on us” using divide and conquer tactics. And most of us have been accused of “bait and switch” strategies particularly when unforeseen situations pop up that lead to an increase in the price for the work. On the bright side, those customers are few and far between… most of our customers are good people, happy to have us in their homes fixing their problems!
Many times, the communication issues we experience with our customers either between our Estimators or Technicians actually come through no fault of their own. This is because we rarely deal with just one customer. We usually deal with spouses, or partners, or even parents and children. We almost always have TWO customers at hand. Many times, we also have the scenario where our Estimator met with one partner for the quote, but our Tech is performing the work in front of the other partner! And when our customers disagree, it becomes awkward for our employees who sometimes are expected to be drawn into their interpersonal relationship! However, this is also something we can control… both through our hiring of well-rounded team members and the training we give them on providing a Customer Experience at 110%.
