Expertise? Check.

Systems to deal with every possible eventuality? Check.

Hi-tech tools? Check.

You’ve got everything you need to be a successful tradie. But no matter how hard you try, nothing seems to stick.

A lot of work goes into bringing customers to your tradie business. Your own skills – technical or otherwise – will only get you so far. There are a lot of other factors you need to think of.

For example: have you thought about your customer relationships and online visibility? If you haven’t, we don’t blame you – a disturbingly high number of tradies don’t make any attempts to cultivate customer relationships.

You might be surprised to discover how much of an edge a focus on relationship-building can give you over other tradies!

If you haven’t really put too much thought into this, it might be time to make a start. Read on to learn how you cultivate your client relationships!

Building Relationships with Previous Customers

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: repeat customers are the most powerful weapon in your arsenal when it comes to winning more jobs.

Think of your previous clients as your service advocates. Even if the last time you talked to them was 2-3 years ago, past customers can still be a big help to your business.

Here are some helpful tips on how you can build relationships with yesterday’s customer to get more business tomorrow:

Follow-up after service

A lot of tradies don’t really see the benefit of following-up with their customers after completing a service. The job is done, after all!

Going the extra mile and following-up with your customers is a simple habit to get into. But it can be a boon in building customer-loyalty and making a name for yourself!

Something as simple as sending a short message a week later asking how your service has held up can be all it takes.

If you take a lot of calls every week, you can also automate this process! Many email hosts have in-built systems that allow users to set up automatic messages. All you need is a contact, a record of what service you provided them and a stopwatch.

On a related note, how many tradies keep in touch with their customers after the fact?

A certain level of contact can be very effective at reminding previous customers that you exist. Maybe keep customers updated on any changes to your info, services or promos to remind them you’re around.

That way, if they come into another problem further down the line, they’re more likely to remember the tradie that fixed their problem last time (assuming you did a good job, of course!)

Building relationships with Potential Customers

Your tradie business won’t survive off return customers – if you do your job well, you mightn’t even have any repeat customers!

Equally as (and arguably, more) important is forming relationships with potential customers. And that means being proactive. Here are some practical tips to get the ball rolling:

Encourage feedback and customer reviews

Here’s a statistic: 97% of consumers report reading online reviews before contacting local businesses.

Needless to say, positive reviews can be very convincing to potential customers!

After rendering a service, try (politely) asking your clients for any feedback or reviews.

And that’s all it takes! You’d be surprised at how many people will leave a review with nothing more than a gentle prompt. There’s a reason McDonald’s will ask if you want to add fries to your order – it works.

Once you have your reviews, be sure to talk to your digital agency about embedding them on your site somewhere. Be sure to choose a spot that’s easy-to-spot and aesthetically pleasing.

Be visible online

It’s hard to build a relationship with a potential customer if you never get the opportunity to make contact with them in the first place!

In some industries where businesses go to customers. Trades aren’t one of them – people generally don’t call a sparkie unless they have a problem, after all.

This is where your digital and online strategy comes in.

For many of your customers, their first port of call when something breaks won’t be Yellow Pages or the local paper – it’ll be Google.

That’s why it’s so important that you have a website that is accessible, well-optimised and most importantly of all, easy to search for!

There are a number of techniques you can use to go about that:

  • Good web design
  • Content
  • Search Engine Optimisation
  • Social media
  • Google Adwords
  • … and more

At iformat, we’ve worked with a number of tradies in the past, combining different techniques to form effective digital strategies. We’ve made their sites easier to find, more user-friendly and most importantly of all, more effective at generating leads!

Be contactable

The final hurdle: convincing potential customers to pick up the phone and contact you.

In our experience, it all comes down to making it as easy as possible for potential customers to contact you. Being contactable is more than just listing your contact details on your site – it’s about making the act of getting in touch seamless.

One way you can do this is by displaying your contact details prominently. When it comes to your webpage, that means a prominent “contact me” form at the top of your site for everyone to see. Other techniques that work include implementing easy-to-use call buttons – one click and they’ll be on the phone with you.

Do you want to start building relationships with your customers?

Step 1: talk to iformat about tradie marketing!

Nurturing relationships with your customers involves a lot of factors

Would you like to:

  • Have a website that looks and functions well?
  • Be found on Google easily?
  • Grow your business and get more calls?

Then contact iformat now on 1300 88 64 50 or fill in this contact form to get started! iformat takes care of everything for you so you can get on with what you do best: fixing problems.