I wanted to get your thoughts on how you follow up with clients or potential clients. Do you reach out to calls that don’t leave voicemails? I’m torn because I don’t want to miss out on opportunities, and I feel like reaching out is courteous. But more often than not, those calls turn out to be spam, so I’ve been slacking on returning them as of recent.
Similarly, how do you handle open estimates where the client has accepted but hasn’t scheduled? For example, I did a job in early June and a neighbor inquired about getting some work done. They accepted the quote of $1200 but wanted to wait until after they got their house painted. When it came time to schedule, I was booked for about two weeks, and they were out of town the third week (this was at the end of June). I reached out earlier July but haven’t heard back. With the holiday, I thought I might hear from them this week (and I still might) but if not, how long should I wait? I don’t want to come off as overbearing but I also don’t want to miss out on a bigger ticket job because of a lack of follow through.
I think it’s a little different when they have already accepted, I’d keep pressing, but July and August people have a lot of trips and vacations. If I send an estimate, I’ll follow up immediately asking if they would like to schedule, if I don’t hear anything back I’ll follow up again a week or so later, and let it be after that.
Sometimes I’ll call with, “We’ll be in the area this Tuesday…” to try to press them a little. I have also never heard back from people then randomly 6 months later get a request to schedule lol.
I have also driven by some clients houses to see if they have had it done by someone else, had a guy this year that I did his house 2 years ago, sent a new estimate that was slightly more, sounded like he wanted it done ASAP, never heard back. Drove by a week later and saw someone else came in and did it, which really boiled my blood, especially since they were ecstatic the first time and left an awesome review and said they’d be using me again int he future.
Sounds like so they found a lowballer, can’t really do much in that situation.
One of my biggest residential clients told me that they don’t need work done one year because of construction being done next door. When I was in the area a few weeks later I saw another company’s yard sign on their lawn.
If the phone isn’t ringing much, then I’ll start calling back.
I haven’t had many issues with that. I do the scheduling so I just put them on the schedule without asking (unless they specifically say, “I need it after x” then I just ask them to note that in the quote when they accept it). Occasionally once I schedule someone I get a text, “We’re out of town that week” which I then follow-up and get something on the schedule that works for them.
My auto-email when they accept a quote lets them know how far out I am and that we’ll schedule them within x days. Most are fine with me choosing the day but there are some that want a specific day. I try to accommodate them.
Yes, that’s exactly where I am right now. I was really hoping it would work out because I thought July would be slow, but it’s been the exact opposite. I’ve been solidly booked all of July and August, and I’m quickly filling up for the fall.
Honestly the more I thought about it, the more I realized my estimate was low (still profitable) but not worth the hassle… so I’m kinda glad it hasn’t worked out at this point. Been plenty busy as is so no loss.
Makes sense, it felt like ships passing in the night when trying to schedule, so we both just kept pushing back further into the year… we’ll see if it actually makes it on the schedule, but so far I’m not too worried about it.
What’s the old saying… You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink… I think
I feel that way with some customers, they accept the quote, I offer a couple days that are available for service, then never hear back for whatever reason.
I try not to waste time chasing after people, I don’t like it to feel forced. They either want my service or they don’t. But it does suck when it’s a good sized job during a slow period.
