Relationship Marketing in the Computer Repair Business

The Pot of Gold at the end of the marketing rainbow is loyal customers who value your services, pay on time, and refer their friends and family. Unfortunately you can’t simply “find” this pot of gold, you have to work towards it, every day of your business.

I don’t need to stress to you the benefits of loyalty, prompt payments and referrals. Instead I would like to share with you some rough and ready ideas for building real relationships with your customers.  Once you have this system working in your business the rest will follow.

Try to personalize your communication

This is Number One if you’re trying to make your business or yourself, more than the “IT Guy/Girl” to your client. It is also the quickest, cheapest and easiest to implement, in fact most of you can probably start this right now. When I say personalize, I mean try to include some information about the customer or business whenever you communicate, or to put it another way, try not to make any communication sound too general, including advertising, special offers, discounts, refunds etc.

The rise of automated systems such a mail merge have made it easy for you to send out a mass, customized email/letter message. You should always try to include more information about the customer than simply a name, if you’re thinking long term you may want to develop an excel database of the customers last few jobs which can be picked up by the program and integrated in the message. For a smaller business you can just do what I did and write them yourself!

Here is a basic template with which I have had great success, the bold text are areas which you can personalize for your client.

for example,

Dear George A,

A message from XXXX

Thank you for the prompt payment of your bill, it is greatly appreciated. Please don’t hesitate to call if you have any further issues with your (previous job problem, e.g. computer running slowly, antivirus updates etc. )

I would just like to let you know if you have this issue again in the next 6 weeks we will waive our callout fee ( or something similar ) – We will be happier knowing your IT problem is solved. ( or something which fits with your business model )

We would also like to offer you a 5% ( or similar ) discount for the next month (or similar ) on any of the following services as you have spent ($$$ ) (or similar ) with us in the last year

– Here is a chance for you to offer additional services / products , essentially an Ad
– Great for those businesses who grow sideways!

Kind Regards,

You.

Most of this doesn’t take a complex database system to be effective and track. Hey, if you copy the template exactly you can fill in the blanks in about 3 minutes! Not only that but a customer receiving this level of personalization is going to feel appreciated. You can even tailor your discounts towards a project they are considering – personalization marketing plus cash flow management all at the same time!

Give Planned Discounts or a Free Gift

This is along the same line as the letter, essentially you should give your customer a reward for spending their money. You don’t necessarily have to tell the customer this is going to happen, it can come as a wonderful surprise. Make the system part of your business structure, perhaps allocate 3% of every purchase to an account in their name so the cost (to your cash flow) has already been accounted for. You can even set certain levels for your discount or gift such as the first gift when this account reaches $20 dollars, and a more impressive gift/discount when it reaches $100 dollars. I believe that a free gift is a more personalized way of showing appreciation rather than a discount, because it lets you demonstrate your knowledge of the customer. I believe the best gift you can give is something that is entirely unrelated to your business, it shows that you genuinely value your customer – something which might not shine through with a free stick of ram.

Create a Call – Back Schedule

This can be a very powerful tool for your business, driving new sales, and strengthening your connection to the client. A call back schedule is exactly what it sounds like, calling a client back at a predetermined interval. Sounds a bit like telemarketing, but the key here is to offer value with your calls, and make sure you’re not calling to “sell”!

Here’s what we do:

First Call: 1 Week After the Job
In this call we try solely to make sure the customer’s problems have been fixed and to make sure they are satisfied with the work we provided. Generally we ask three questions;

• Are you having any more problems with XXXX?
• Would you like a free (or similar) visit to make sure that XXXX is no longer a problem
• Is there any questions you would like to ask, even if they are unrelated to XXXX

We show the customer we stand by our work, value their business and genuinely want to support them

Second Call: 1 – 3 Months after the job

In this call there is slightly more of an emphasis on selling, however it is still focused on the client and their situation. The length of time between this call and the first call depends on the kind of job we performed.

• Are you having any problems with XXXX?
• Would you like to make an appointment for a computer tech to check your home/office for a 20% discount ( or similar), We will provide the following services …… usually $200 dollars.
• You may want to mention at this point that you have a special offer, perhaps a laptop or desktop they may be interested in. For our business we ask to send around a brochure which the customer can either save money on their own purchase or generate a discount / credit on their own account.

Third Call: 6 Months after the job

This call is essentially just a check up, make sure everything you set up for them is going well. Think of it as a chance to have a chat ( almost :P ) just to remind them you still exist and you’re looking out for the computer. This call we don’t place as much of an emphasis on selling as by this point a problem or issue has usually arisen by itself and they just needed an opportunity to act.

So there you have it, three simple ways to build and maintain relationships with clients, feel free to add your own suggestions into the comments!

 
Written by James Gilbert