The Art of Overcoming Customer Complaints & Escalations

No matter how big you scale, your home services business is always going encounter fires and unhappy customers that you’ll need to deal with. On today’s episode of To The Point, hosts Chris Yano and Chad Peterman lay out the blueprints for contractors to not just handle these issues, but prevent them from happening in the first place. Listen or watch now!

Are You a Firefighter Or an Arsonist?

As your business grows and evolves, there is plenty of change management you’ll need to navigate. Sometimes, that means that old processes that once worked no longer work and need to evolve, too. What has to happen is that when fires arise, you’re not just putting them out and ignoring the source.

Most of the typical issues you’ll face as a contractor simply come down to either a problem with the process or the absence of a process altogether. While yes, fires need to be put out, you have to figure out why they’re starting in the first place. Otherwise, you’re enabling them to continue. And do you know what we call that? An arsonist. So, channel your inner Smokey Bear and focus on prevention.

• Whether the customer is always right
• How to handle change leadership
• Dealing with the most common fires contractors have to put out
• Creating a safe space for team feedback
• When to offer a refund versus just an apology
• Why tackling the process is more important than the fire
• Getting new and old team perspectives aligned
• Improving the communication breakdown between technician and customer
• And more!

Want more Chris and Chad? Check out our previous episode on the business playbook they wish they had!

This is Your Opportunity to Improve

Any internal fire you’re dealing with and any customer complaint is an opportunity to get better. If you don’t have that mindset, you’re not going to go far. Chad goes as far as to thank customers for bringing issues to his attention, because he is genuinely grateful that he has a chance to improve.

The best thing you can do is communicate. With your team, with your customers, it all makes things better. Create that safe environment for your team and customers to give you feedback, and focus on getting the process right. Most importantly, though…you have to do something.

NO. ZERO. DAYS.