2022 Service Business Tips
Today we’re going to review 10 powerful tips to optimize your service business for 2022.
We had 14 great guests on the show last year and did a total of 75 episodes.
Each and every episode was about trying our best to give valuable tips and insights into running a more efficient and profitable service business, so you may want to consider going back and listening to some or all of them. We guarantee there are golden nuggets in each and everyone that can help you run a better business.
For now, here’s what we believe are the top 10 tips out of all of those episodes:
- Get your pricing right. Most service companies price themselves too low and if you do that, then it doesn’t matter how well you do everything else; you’ll be struggling forever.
Remember, every business is first and foremost in the math business; if you don’t get your prices right, then nothing else you do matters very much.
Most businesses fail because they simply don’t have their numbers right.
Check out episode 15 – our interview with CPA Meaghan Likes, who does a great job of explaining how to get this done right, even if you’re terrified of numbers and math.
- Get an operating system for your service business – use a customer relationship management system (CRM) to manage and automate communications, dispatch, scheduling, estimates, invoicing, project management, follow-up marketing, managing recurring service agreements, and much more.
Check out episode #67 – our interview with House Call Pro’s COO, Brooks Pettus, on why every service company needs a CRM and what it can do for you.
- Work with your team to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for every repeatable function in your company.
Quality service, reliability, and dependability are the key factors that your customers will judge you by the most.
Repeat business, great customer reviews, and referrals totally depend on everyone on your team providing the same high-quality service to each and every customer every single time.
That can only be achieved if you have standardized procedures for everything you do and your team is fully trained to provide it.
Let your team help you do this, engage and ask for suggestions, let them help you streamline, improve, and standardize every repeatable process.
- Invest in quality & your customer’s experience. Competition is more fierce than ever in every type of business.
In order to stand out from the competition, your company needs to provide the best service possible.
That starts with great customer service, excellent communications, well-trained service techs, and paying attention to the little details.
Ask your employees how to improve the customer experience.
Pay your employees well, treat them well, and provide competitive benefits.
Happy employees create happy customers.
Ask your customers how you could have made their experience the best it could be.
Remember that providing the best quality service and parts upfront results in the lowest cost per job because you’ll have less return service calls to fix what was missed or not done right, and you’ll get more repeat business, reviews, and referral business.
The top 5 consumer complaints about service companies are:
- no humans answer the phone
- service tech didn’t show up on time
- the job was rushed and not done properly
- the company didn’t listen to what the customer wanted
- the service tech left a mess behind
Put procedures in place that solve these issues and make sure your customers never encounter them, and you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors.
Check out episodes #4 titled “The #1 marketing tip of all time”, #27 “Why quality is free”, and #73 “Clean up and stand out or give up” for more details and suggestions on providing customers with the best experience possible.
Also, check out the interview on customer service excellence with the owners of Ever Pro in episode #30.
- Define your goals – business and personal – where do you want to take your company? What should you specialize in? Are there jobs you should stop doing? Is there an exit plan? What does your perfect day look like and what’s the path to get there?
World War Two General George S. Patton said, “Without a plan, you’re just a tourist.” That’s a quote on our website.
Define where you want to go and map out a plan to get there.
- Are you prepared for a recession? Our economy has been in a bull market for a record 15 years or so. But all economies are cyclical and what goes up must come down.
Is your company ready for a recession?
Warning signs are popping up everywhere, and housing prices have reached unaffordable levels, inflation is rising, interest rates are slated to rise this year, a pandemic has wreaked havoc on businesses and industries, consumer debt is rising, and more.
What you can do to prepare:
- clean up & standardize inventory
- reduce debt
- specialize in high-margin, high-demand services
- build cash reserves
- get your pricing right
- increase efficiencies
- add recurring revenue services
There are more details in episode #18 – “Preparing for a recession.”
- Create more recurring revenue – that’s on the prepare for recession list
Smooth out the high and lows of service call sales with recurring revenue programs like annual service agreements, VIP clubs, and maintenance agreements.
This not only helps increase revenue streams, but it also keeps you connected to previous customers so when they need a service like yours again, they know instantly who to call.
A good CRM – operating system for your business can easily keep track of these and the billing for them.
Check out episode #7, “Creating recurring revenue for more details.”
- Stay connected to existing customers
You paid good money to attract them. Why ignore them now that they’ve come to know, like, and trust your company?
Repeat business, online reviews, and referrals should be the lifeblood of your business.
New customers and referred customers want to see great customer reviews about your company.
Repeat business and referrals are the best-qualified customers you can find.
Don’t lose previous customers by disappearing. Instead stay connected with an email newsletter that’s filled with fun tips about places in your town, your staff’s favorite restaurants and places for families, reviews of products in your industry, DIY tips, and more.
Make it interesting and about them so they’ll want to open your emails.
Don’t just sell, in fact; you should keep promotions to a minimum and make it more of a helpful, informative, fun, and engaging newsletter that they’ll remember you by.
Listen to episode #11, “How to grow your business by staying connected,” and our interview in episode #10 with AWeber’s Jena Bailey for more on this.
- Turn your website and google business profile into lead generation machines!
Most companies have a website that is little more than a digital brochure of their services.
That might have been okay in the year 2000, but that doesn’t cut it at all in 2022 and beyond.
First of all, a site like that will never rank for much of anything so in Google, where all of your prospects and customers search for info about services like yours, you’d be a ghost and go unseen by everyone.
Secondly, most people are not in the buying stage of their buyer’s journey. 90% of them seek information about their problems or desires and the different solutions available to them.
He or she who provides educational information to those in the earlier stages of their journey will not only have a chance to rank in Google and get seen by their prospects but will also be respected more likely to get the business by those prospects for helping them along their path.
Actively managing your Google Business Profile with regular posting, Q&As, complete product and service information, posting job and team photos, adding and replying to reviews, and fighting spam will prosper the most.
You’ll also have the benefit of reducing customer acquisition costs and advertising dependency.
See our episodes #9 titled “Are you missing out on 90% of your prospects”, #17 titled “15 essential elements of a lead gen website”, and #22 titled “Inbound Marketing.”
There are several other episodes that help you improve website lead gene, so check out our podcast or YouTube channel for more helpful info on this.
- Mastermind with business owners in your industry!
Pick up tips and learn from people who are running businesses like yours.
Check out our interview episodes and listen to what business owners in your industry are doing to grow and improve their companies.
There is always something to learn from those in the same business you are.
For plumbers, check out the interviews in episodes 61, 62, and 75.
For solar installers, check out the interviews in episodes #5, #63, and #74.
As a bonus, if you’re running Google Ads, you’ll also want to learn how to protect yourself from competitors and fraudulent clicks detailed in episode #25 and our interview with Jason Pittock, the CMO of ClickGuard.
- 10 Google Ads Mistakes That Cost You Money - June 8, 2022
- Help Your Google Business Profile Generate More Leads - May 11, 2022
- Kill the one-call close before it kills you - February 9, 2022
