Spoil the crap out of your clients

Who doesn't like to be spoiled? There is something nice about knowing someone went out of their way to treat you extra special whether it be in a personal or business relationship. Being an only child I guess you can say I was constantly being spoiled with love and attention where I felt like the only person in the world. Sound familiar?

I remember a story my parents told me when I went to college. Once I moved off to college in September they moved to another small town about 15 miles North (and, yes, I found them). Less than two months later as they were handing out Halloween candy to the neighborhood children they noticed a slight sense of disappointment when the kids watched the bite sized candy bars fall into their pillow cases and plastic pumpkins. What my parents failed to realize was that these kids had photographic memories and they were spoiled by the previous owner's frivolous candy-giving ways. What he did was hand out full-sized Snickers bars and he soon became the neighborhood hero. I think they even had kids showing up in minivans from 5 towns over just to get some goodies. Over the years the word surely spread about how generous this guy was so when mom and pop doled out puny candies it ushered in a new era. The previous owner spoiled the crap out of the kids and they kept coming back for more. He was memorable. I feel bad for my parents as they must have been horrified.

In my construction business one of the big keys to my success has been to spoil the crap out of my clients so they keep coming back for more. We continually seek to go out of our way to spoil them so they won't forget us. It might start during the first meeting when I bring in the newspaper instead of driving over it. The site crews extend this spoiling as they lay down excessive floor protection to keep the clients' floors from being damaged. We have a hundred little tricks that have become habit and they all help create lasting clients. If you own a business I would suggest you start to find some of these tricks of your own that help set yourself apart from the competition. Sometimes it is the smallest things that make people remember you. An example is when we go to a client's home we usually try and find a door that is sticking and fix it. It is amazing how many homes have sticky doors and after a while they don't even notice it. After we explain that we fixed it at no charge they are so thankful. In fact I have received several referrals that I directly attribute to this trick. Go out of your way to give the clients more than they paid for and you will be rewarded with lifetime clients. After 13 years in business I am finding a larger and larger percentage of our clients are repeats. This is one of my rewards as a construction business owner. Don't forget to Spoil the Crap out of your Clients!