Why Home Services Providers Need to Create Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is key to driving revenue. You can’t grow your home services business without customer engagement. It needs to be a priority in your marketing efforts.

Customer engagement includes all the ways your company directly interacts with homeowners. That includes conversations, emails, social posts, even your billing process. It’s every touchpoint. 

You should aim to increase these interactions. Make them as positive as possible for your customers. You want them to leave every interaction feeling good about your business.

The goal is to grow the business by creating positive customer experiences.

In this article, we’ll explore 5 techniques you can use right away to improve customer engagement. As you read through the article and start to put these tips to work, keep one critical thing in mind. Customer engagement is all about how you make your customers feel.

It will absolutely make you more profitable, but you need to make sure your customers are your top concern.

5 Tips for Cultivating Customer Engagement

Research shows that customer experience is the primary reason people choose to do business with a company. Sure, people compare price, and quality of service will always matter. But often, the make-it-or-break-it moment comes down to customer experience.

In fact, “86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.”

That’s why these tips matter so much. Put them to use, and you’ll not only dazzle your customers. You’ll also grow your business.

1. Create a Customer Survey

Customer surveys help you acquire valuable insights about your business. You can use these insights to stay relevant, surpass your competitors, and (most importantly) understand your customers better.

When you fully understand your customers’ wants and needs, you can adapt your services to suit them.

Unsure of what to include in a customer survey? Your priority should be on whether they’re satisfied with your services. If they’re not, what could your staff have done better? If they are, what did they like?

Once you’ve got a few dozen customer surveys in, you can start analyzing the demographics. Things like age, place of residence, marital status and more will help you better understand what specific types of homeowners are looking for. This information will help you to tailor your services and marketing efforts to serve your clients. 

2. Send SMS Messages

SMS marketing is as simple as sending text messages to your customers … and as complex as using a strategy to decide exactly what to send, when to send it, and when to follow up.

Your texts could be automated, or they could be a conversation between a customer and staff member. You can have your customers trigger automated texts through their actions—like booking or canceling an appointment. One-on-one texts, on the other hand, could support one-on-one customer service.

This technique works well for most homeowners because it’s familiar. We’re all used to texting.

It’s a great way to cultivate customer engagement without burdening the customer. It’s much more convenient for people to read a quick text than to go through a long email or even a newsletter. 

3. Launch a Customer Loyalty Program

Discounts are an effective way of showing your customers you appreciate them and improving their overall experience. Who doesn’t like saving a little money?

However, you can cultivate an even more positive experience through a loyalty program. Loyalty programs go beyond giveaways and discounts. They include exclusive offers, pre-sale access, valuable content, and other extra benefits.

Because of all they include, loyalty programs nurture an emotional connection with customers. When a loyalty program really works, it leaves customers feeling heard, seen, understood and appreciated.

As you begin to think through creating a customer loyalty program, try to think about what you’d want if you were one of your own customers. Are there any perks you’d truly appreciate? If so, try to find creative, low-cost ways to provide those perks to your most consistent customers.

4. Invest Time in Social Media

Ideally, your home services business should have some sort of social media presence.

Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are convenient for communicating with customers. Plus, they provide you with an easy way to share pictures of completed work. Customer engagement on social media ranges from people liking your posts to adding comments to sending you private direct messages. 

Not only that, but social media can essentially function as a platform for real-time customer support.

We encourage you to correspond with customers and prospects as quickly as possible. Address their comments and concerns. You can even encourage them to make an appointment through your posts.

And if someone posts something negative, reply to that, too. Don’t be defensive. Instead, ask how you can solve the problem. In doing so, you can turn a negative interaction into positive marketing.

After all, you’re showcasing your customer service skills.

5. Make Short Videos

Videos are a powerful and often underutilized marketing tool.

Given the number of homeowners with smartphones (almost all of them), it’s easy for most folks to play a short video regardless of where they are. You can take advantage of this by creating videos for your business.

What kind of videos?

  • Videos that tell a story, like a before-and-after of a particularly good job
  • Videos that provide helpful information, like quick DIY tips
  • Videos that make people aware of promotions you’re running, like seasonal sales
  • Videos that highlight your community involvement, like your support of a local charity

Your videos don’t have to be perfect, either. You and your team can make them yourself using a smartphone, natural lighting and a quiet room. 

What matters most is that they’re short, genuine and interesting. Customers will get to know your business on a more emotional level. They may even comment, like or share your video with their friends.

In Closing

What all these tips have in common is a focus on value over revenue—at least from the homeowner’s perspective. And that’s what matters. When your customers feel like you value them, they’ll be far more likely to engage.

And far more likely to give you their business and recommend you to family and friends.

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