The total area population for my old cleaning and restoration business? Less than 30,000 people! (That is PEOPLE, folks… not household income potential!) Some of you service neighborhoods bigger than this!
So I was forced to treasure (obsess?) over each and every client! So if you have millions of people in your market can you be complacent (even arrogant?) about losing a prospect? NO WAY and here’s why…
Carefully consider the “downstream income potential” of even a small customer!
I share this “financial exercise” using a “minimum charge” $140.00 residential job with every SFS class…
Immediate “1-time only” return: $140.00 (This is the ONLY goal your competitors try for!) But now look at your customer’s…
Downstream income potential: (You convert this 1-time customer above into a “Lifetime Client” that cleans their carpets 15 times over the next 30 years.) 15 cleanings X $140.00= $2,100.00
NOTE: This $2,100.00 is based on an “every-other-year” frequency with every cleaning based on minimum charge. Not worth much? But what if this client becomes your Customer Cheerleader? Then they’ll refer you to at least…
Four more Lifetime Clients: 4 X $2,100.00= $8,400.00 Hmmm… this is getting interesting! And now let’s consider…
The Cheerleader “Second Generation” Return: Yep, let’s imagine the very plausible goal that each of these four Lifetime Clients become a Cheerleader and refer you to three more Lifetime Clients. 4 X 3 X $2,100.00= $25,200.00! Which brings us to a…
Lifetime Total Return: $35,840.00! (And remember that this 35 grand came from just one “crummy minimum charge” job over two “referral generations”!)
NOTE: I recognize that customers leave (Yes, even the best company will suffer from “Customer Erosion”!) and some clients even have the audacity to die on you! But the projections above are very conservative. It is all based on minimum charge jobs and an every-other-year cleaning frequency! Your actual return may be much bigger!
Remember that another advantage of getting OCD over each client is you will avoid those nasty, negative “surprise reviews” on Google. Let’s talk about how to avoid the negative shrapnel of a ticked-off online customer real soon!
Steve