Retaining a customer is more cost-effective than securing a new one, so once you have educated a customer on the various aspects of his septic system and explained the benefits of preventive maintenance, the next job is customer retention. Utilizing a reminder card system is an effective way to do this.
Benefits are many
The most obvious benefit of a reminder system to your company is increased sales. Many uneducated customers have their septic tanks serviced on an “as needed” basis. This means the customer only calls when a problem has occurred. By placing customers in a reminder card system, you are initiating the service call on a regularly scheduled basis, rather than a crisis basis. In other words, you are proactive in generating sales rather than reacting to emergency calls.
Second, after a short time you will start generating a substantial reminder list for every month of the year. This results in more consistent workflow and more consistent cash flow. Rather than feast in the summer months and famine in the winter, the reminder card system will enable you to keep your equipment and employees working year-round as weather allows.
Third, a reminder card system can dramatically reduce the number of after hours and weekend emergency calls you receive. Also, it reduces your operating costs because a maintained system is easier and faster to service and requires less labor and equipment costs to pump than a tank that only gets pumped once every 12-15 years.
Along with this reduction in operating costs is an increase in scheduling efficiency due to more accurate service time estimation for each job. In other words, you know you can schedule jobs every two hours if they are for scheduled maintenance rather than an emergency.
