An inconsistent message to your clients can lead to problems, complaints and also missed opportunities for booking more moves.
In this episode, I share how to determine how consistent your moving company sales, marketing, and service are.
1. Review your marketing
Take a look at all of the marketing material you have out there. Read over your website, your direct mail, brochures, PPC ads, landing pages, social media, etc. Write down everything that you are proclaiming to the public and potential customers that your company offers. Examples would be things like local moving experts, licensed piano movers, quality trained movers, disassemble and reassemble furniture, etc.
2. Review your sales
Moving company sales teams can sometimes have an inconsistent message. Now listen to what is being said by your sales team. Throughout the course of quoting the customer, things are said to persuade them to use your company. Write down everything that your sales team is saying. Examples would be things like “we will arrive at 8 am, our movers will quilt-pad and wrap all of your furniture, they will have all of the equipment necessary for your move, all of our movers are experienced and trained, they will be in uniform, dispatch will call you to confirm,” etc.
3. Review your service
Now the take a look at the reality of what is happening on each move. When you do this, it is important to look at what is being done now, today. You may have told your staff that you wanted things done a particular way at some point. For this exercise to work you need to look at reality and what is actually happening on each move. You may need to go, and spot-check a few moves and how things are going. Write down what your movers are doing. Examples would be things like they were all in uniform, they laid down floor protection, they protected the door jams and railings; they had all of their equipment and tools, etc.
Just going through this process will give you major insight into what is going on within your company. This exercise is especially useful as you grow and have staff handling the day to day operations.
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Full Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]
Louis Massaro: Hey, guys, it’s Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery.
Have you ever been in a situation where you receive a phone call from a customer? Your guys are on the job. They’ve already started. Maybe you’re collecting payment or it’s halfway through. And they call in and the conversation starts something along the lines of, “I was told by your salesmen that you guys would do this.” Or, “On your website, when I was checking you guys out, it says that you guys would do that.” And it’s not happening on the move.
This brings up a very important and crucial part to your business, and something that, with a minor shift and change, could really impact your customer experience and create more raving fans. And that’s your marketing, sales, and service consistency. You see, when you are marketing, when you’re putting information on your website, when you’re putting bullet points on all the services you provide, on postcards, or whatever it may be, brochures, Yellow Page ads, it doesn’t matter. When you’re proclaiming everything you do in your marketing, which you should, you should talk about all your great accomplishments and everything, all the services you provide. That should all be in your marketing.
But when you do that, you’re setting an expectation for the customer. So that’s really good bait, essentially, to get them to call you. It’s really good. It kinda brings them in. It says, “You know what? This is what I’m looking for. This company provides that. Let me pick up the phone and give ’em a call.” So you went ahead and you’ve already planted the seeds of expectation with your marketing. Now they’re gonna call and they’re gonna speak to somebody in your company. They’re either gonna talk to a sales consultant over the phone, someone’s gonna go out and do an onsite estimate, and there’s gonna be more said to the customer now in your sales delivery, and your sales pitch, and what it is that you say to actually book the move.
So now, what you’re doing is, you’re planting even more seeds of expectation and you’re fertilizing the ones that you planted with the marketing. So now, you need to fulfill that service on the service end. And I know this sounds like common sense, but let me break it down and show you where this disconnect could cause you a lot of problems, and also, how you can turn this into an opportunity to enhance your marketing and sales effort.
Now, the first thing you’re gonna wanna do is, you’re gonna wanna discover if there’s any discrepancies. So you have your marketing, you have your sales, you have your service. You need to discover what the differences are in the message that you’re delivering to the customer, and the service you’re delivering to the customer. So the easiest way to do this, is take out three sheets of paper. At the top of the first sheet, you’re gonna write “marketing,” on the top of the second sheet, you’re gonna write “sales,” and on top of the third sheet, you’re gonna write “service”.
Now, take a look at all your marketing. You don’t have to do this right now. You can set aside some time, and do it when you have a chance. But take a look at all of your marketing. Your website, your brochures, what it says on your trucks, your business cards, Yellow Page ads, anything. And what is it that you’re proclaiming? What is it that you’re putting out there to the public and saying, “This is what our company’s about.” Are you saying, “We’re licensed and insured. We’re licensed piano movers. We’re gonna quilt pad and wrap all of your furniture. Our guys are gonna lay down floor protection when they come to your home.” Is this stuff in your marketing? Whatever you have, how long you’ve been in business, new, clean, sanitized trucks, whatever’s in your marketing, write it down on that sheet. Everything.
Then you’re gonna wanna go to your sales sheet, and you’re gonna wanna write down everything that’s being said to your customers by either yourself or your sales team, by either listening to them speak to a customer, or reviewing your sales script, if you have a sales script. And you’re gonna want to see what’s being said. Not what should be getting said, we’ll talk about that after. What’s really getting said. Now, you may have put some procedures and some processes in place at one point, and you want certain things to be getting said. But maybe they’re not. So you wanna be… We wanna look at what’s actually happening now, today, and not what should be happening. We’ll get to that in a minute. But go through your sales, and make a list of everything that’s being said.
So if they’re saying, “Our men are gonna come out to your home, they’re gonna disassemble and reassemble all of your beds.” If they’re saying that you can leave all of the clothes in the drawers of the dresser, or if they’re saying no, you cannot. It’s up to you which way you wanna do it, but how they’re saying it, again, sets an expectation for the customer on the day of the move.
Now, you’re gonna go to your service sheet, and you’re gonna write down everything that’s happening on your moves. Are your movers showing up and introducing themselves? Do they have a clean truck every time they show up? Is it swept out, pads folded, ready to go? Are all of your men in uniform? Do you have a policy about smoke breaks, and not taking smoke breaks, or lunch breaks, and not taking lunch breaks on the job? Are they going to lay floor protection and cover the door jambs and the railings? You know, things like that. What are you actually doing on every move? Write all that down.
So now, step two is, you’re gonna wanna compare these. Again, don’t worry if there’s inconsistencies, ’cause that’s part of this. And I can almost guarantee there’s gonna be some inconsistencies, which is good, because we wanna discover that. So now, we’re gonna compare all of these, so the easiest way to do it… Again, if you have a better way of figuring it out, by all means. You wanna compare it. So if you have the three sheets of paper, circle each item that does not appear on all three, on your marketing, on your sales, and on your service. Just circle it if it doesn’t appear on all three. So now you know where the inconsistencies are. And this can hurt you on a service end, and it’s also, you’re missing out on sales opportunities as well, which we’ll get to in a minute.
So now you see that there’s some possible inconsistencies in your marketing and your sales and your service. So now what you’re gonna wanna do is make adjustments. So the easiest thing to do, if you’re saying something in your marketing but it’s not actually happening on the move, is to stop saying it in your marketing. Take it out, take it off your website, take it off your postcards. If you’re saying something in sales that’s not actually happening on the move, you could stop saying that. That’s the easiest way to do it. But, if you look at it as an opportunity, you say, “You know what? We’re already selling these services. We’re already saying we’re gonna do this, or we’re gonna do that. Let’s go ahead and make that policy on the move end. Let’s train our movers and make sure that they know it needs to be done on every move.” Whatever it may be, whatever it comes up on the list, I’m sure it’s gonna be very different for everybody.
So another opportunity here… That’s on what are you saying, what’s your message in marketing, what’s your message in sales? Are you doing that in service? But a lot of times, what you’ll find is that on your service end, you’re actually doing a lot more that you’re not really talking about upfront. So let’s say you are laying down floor protection, let’s say you are always covering the door jambs and padding rails on the stairway, but it’s not in your marketing, or your sales reps aren’t talking about it, you’re missing a major opportunity for extra brownie points, if you will, extra selling points for the customer to be able to book more moves. Because it’s not only about causing less issues based on the inconsistency, it’s about, you know what, are we really doing more on the service end for the customer that we could talk about on the front end, which would allow us to bring in more business? If so, that’s another adjustment. You take the service, and you start putting it on your website, you start putting it in your sales pitch. It’s a great opportunity to add some extra selling points.
So, listen, if you show up on a job, and you go above and beyond for the customer, and there’s stuff that was not in your marketing and is not in your sales, and when you show up, you just blow ’em away, of course they’re gonna be happy. You exceeded their expectations. But if you just meet their expectations, they’re gonna be happy. So if you aren’t afraid to set the expectations high for yourself because you know you’re gonna be able to perform on the service end, do that, because you’re gonna be able to book more jobs. So if you feel confident in your service, make sure everything is loaded up on the sales end. You have everything listed in your marketing, you have your sales guys equipped, ready to go, they know what to say, they know all the extra things that your guys are doing on the job.
And this process alone, you’ll discover a lot about your company. You may need to secret shop your office. You may need to call and have a friend call on speakerphone, and listen to how your office is actually giving the quote, and what they’re saying. You might have to have an estimator go out and do a friend’s home as an estimate. You might have to do a few spot checks on moves. Show up unexpected, see if your guys really are in uniform, see if everything is padded the way that you want it to be padded. Because there’s one thing to have a good intention. I’m sure you all have good intentions, and you wanna service the customer the right way. And it’s a good thing to… At one point, you’ve maybe told your movers, “This is how it needs to be done.” But is it actually happening?
The marketing, the sales, and the service consistency is huge, and it’s just something that going through this little exercise, you’re gonna discover so much about your company, and you’re gonna find some great opportunities there. You don’t wanna be in a position where a disconnect in communication causes issues, because your ultimate goal is not to just move this customer once. Your ultimate goal is to move them every time they move, is to have them tell everyone they know that’s gonna be moving that they should be moving with you. So you wanna bring as many in, and then you wanna service them with consistency.
I hope this was helpful. If you’re not already signed up for my blog, head over to louismassaro.com. I’ll send out great stuff every week, just like this video, straight to your inbox. Until then, I’ll see you next week. Go out and profit in business, thrive in life. Have a great one.