communicating with customers

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Communicating with Customers.pdf

As the on-site crew, your communication with our customers is so important! Here are some guidelines to help you make sure that you’re communicating with them effectively.

1. always communicate ahead of time with the customer

1. Call them to let them know you’re on your way/when you will be there/how many guys will be on the crew — all the things you would want to know if someone was spending a week working in your home.
2. When you arrive, be upfront about what you need from the maintenance team at the job (electrical, etc) to keep from wasting time working on this later.
3. Talk to the customer about what you guys will be doing, how long the job will take, what will be taking place throughout the week (sanding on Tuesday, painting on Friday, etc.) — keep them in the loop on the process

Random checks will be made (manager will call customer to assure you have spoken with them on the first day of job, etc.) to make sure everyone is doing this consistently. If you communicate with a customer through email, copy your manager on every correspondence.

2. keep track of the agreements made/discussions had with customers

1. If you’ve spoken with a customer about a job, make a note of it and share it with your team and manager.
2. When you make a note, include the date and time you spoke to the customer, their name, and what you discussed.

Do not make any ‘deals’ with customers without manager approval! This means if a customer asks you while on site if we can do anything extra, such as add a logo, tell them to call their contact (Chad, Andrew, Casey, Cortney, etc) to discuss. If they don’t know who that person is, help them get in touch.

3. communicate clearly and professionally with customers

1. Casey and Cortney should not be the operational point of contact with customers. Team leaders need to be handling as much communication with customers during the course of a job as possible.
2. Follow some basic rules of professional writing when contacting customers via email:
  1. Capitalize when needed (at the beginning of a sentence, people’s names, proper nouns such as the school name or location)
  2. Use commas! If you’re not sure when to use a comma, or when a sentence ends, say it out loud. When you come to the natural breaks in the sentence, put a comma or period.