In a past article called “giving away too much information and dealing with time wasters” I talked about the dangers of being too helpful on the phone, to the point where you essentially talk yourself out of a job. In this article I’ll show you how to do the opposite and make sure they decided on you as their computer guy.
Just yesterday I had a client call me up saying that they had a virus and they would like me to remove it. I personally try to get onsite the same day of the call typically within a few hours so they don’t figure it out themselves or have enough time to call their techie cousin over.
However, yesterday I was too busy to get out there so I had to recommend the next day. I didn’t want them to call around and find someone else who could come out the same day so I said the following:
“Sure, I can remove the virus, that shouldn’t be a problem. I can also install a free antivirus which I believe is one of the best (I use it on my own machines) and patch up your system to help protect you from such a thing happening again”.
After I said that they locked me in for the next day and I got the job. They may have called around before calling me, I don’t really know, but you can bet they chose me over the others because I gave them better value.
Making a computer “internet safe” is something I do by default and I am sure many other computer technicians do the same. Always make sure your customers know exactly how much value you add and you’ll land those phone jobs.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
I always install free anti virus program in every computer I go and work on.
That customer might not use you again though, for that issue, but definitely will use you again for anything else.
Brother, you are SO right about scheduling same-day, if possible. Just recently, I missed out on two calls (one a regular customer, one not) because I couldn’t get to them same-day. Both called me later to cancel, saying they fixed the problem themselves.
Not much you can do about it, really. Guess what you COULD do is make a quick preliminary visit that same day; therefore perhaps they’d feel obligated to pay you the next day when you return for the actual call.
Thanks for the tip although I think you have to be a little careful with the free antivirus program. I would rather resell them a license for AVG. If it is a business, it is not legal to use the free version of AVG. What antivirus software are you installing for them?
Either AVG Free or the paid version. I dont recommend anything else.
Good information, but it still doesn’t beat a customer not having antivirus software then you charge per virus removed :)