10 tried-and-true tips to grow your service business
Do you wonder why, despite your quality service and the advertising you invest in, customers go to your competitors? Well, the market dynamics and customer behaviour have changed dramatically in recent years and you need to adapt quickly to overtake the other companies.
Here we will reveal the latest customer acquisition trends in the service industry, thanks to which you will achieve the desired growth in your business. In other words, you’ll learn how to beat the competition without costing a fortune.
One of the biggest secrets that every successful service business owner knows but won’t tell you is: Get an online booking form, immediately! And no, we don’t mean the contact form on your website that customers fill out and then wait for someone to call back. Modern booking forms are specialized software that manage thousands of operations for you. They shows real-time availability, calculates the price and collects payments, puts each request directly into the schedule and instantly notifies the relevant specialist. All this happens instantly, imperceptibly, without you even lifting a finger.
The right service booking form is the small difference that separates a good from a great service business. With the right booking system and the tips below, your business will quickly achieve the desired growth.
1. Be available 24/7
Research shows that about 50% of customers order services outside the regular workhours. The reason is more than clear – people work during the day and are busy with their own tasks. However, this is not good for you if you only accept requests between 8:00 to 17:00 for example. Customers will simply prefer another service provider and you will lose the order.
How to fix this? By placing an online service appointment booking system on your website that displays real-time availability, you will automatically accept requests 24/7 without having to return a call to every customer.
2. Never miss a call
Do you accept jobs mainly by phone? Then you should know that 85% of customers don’t call again if you don’t answer right away, they just call the next company. Again – you miss the order.
How to fix this? Modern booking software supports automated call centers for customers who still prefer the phone call. The smart software for phone calls never misses a call and accepts orders even when no operator is available.
3. Use your time far more efficiently
Most service business owners don’t realize how much time they waste in operations that they could do automatically, starting from the operational time for recording and scheduling each job, to the hours spent on the road for inspections. Let’s look again at the statistics – A good real time booking system can free you up to 12 hours a week.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Imagine what you can do with so much extra time – you can take on many more jobs, take a well-deserved vacation or spend precious time with family – you choose.
4. Stop paying unnecessary costs
We bet you had no idea that the automated booking software could save you money on staff, transportation and more. You don’t have to believe the words – here’s a real example of a significant change: In 2015, one of the popular service companies in the UK – Fantastic Services, implemented the innovative booking and field management system – ServiceOS. In the first two years alone, the company reported a 40% reduction in operating and transport costs, while achieving a 300% increase in completed jobs with the same number of staff.
We’ll not be mistaken if we say that in addition to its truly fantastic services, the company owes its dizzying international success to the ServiceOS software form.
“ServiceOS booking form is a must-have for every service business. It’s extremely flexible and autonomous when it comes to clients. Our TrustPilot rating is the highest on the market and that is mostly due to the system automation preventing a lot of the challenges that can happen.”
Boyan Dimitrov – CCO of Fantastic Services
5. Keep the schedule in top shape
Wouldn’t it be great if you had artificial intelligence at your disposal, which knows the schedule, the skills and location of each of your employees in every moment, accepts each job and sends it directly to the nearest and appropriate professional? Also in case of a denied or last minute changed job, all participants to be notified immediately and the schedule to adjust itself, freeing up time for new bookings?
We have a surprise for you – it’s not a fantasy or space technology – this is the usual daily work of booking and field management software. Then why keep doing everything on paper or with a lot of administrative staff?
6. Keep in touch all the time
When it comes to field services, constant communication is everything. Whether the professional will be delayed at the previous job or in a traffic jam, the client may have forgotten about the scheduled time or at the last minute he had an urgent job and can not appear – any small change can lead to failure of the job, a waste of time and unnecessary expenses.
Here the automated form for online bookings takes over again – it automatically reminds customers of upcoming orders, notifies them for any booking change and reschedules if it’s necessary.
7. Chase the unfinished bookings
You have a great online booking form, you did everything right and the customer is booking the desired service, but… something distracts him and he leaves the page before completing the booking. In fact, this happens too often due to the dynamic environment.
How to fix this? Good booking software systems have excellent marketing tools to get the customer’s attention back. They track each unfinished order, return the customer exactly on the step he left, so that he does not start configuring the booking from the beginning.
8. Give customers the freedom to choose
Research is adamant that booking forms that allow customers to choose a convenient day and time, get a lot more bookings. Better online service booking systems offer great features, such as surge pricing, loyal club prices or choosing for yourself exactly which professional to perform your service.
This is a great advantage for the service business because customers are more confident in their choice, and at the same time professionals are more motivated to maintain the highest level of service in order to receive a higher rating.
9. Вe a skilled trader – try cross-sell and upsell
When you shop in the supermarket, you usually buy a lot of additional unplanned products and so the retailer realizes higher turnovers. You can successfully apply the same practice in selling services and significantly increase your cross- and upsales. Just add some tempting sell packages and add-ons as options to each of your main services, so you will remind the customer that he can get a better price by combining the visit of a specialist for several services.
10. Increase payment speed and security
How often do you have to remind a customer of delayed payment? And how much time do you waste preparing invoices for each customer?
A good online booking form has full payment functionality and allows you to either take an upfront deposit or full prepayment, and get the money into your account quicker. You can also invoice completely automatically, for example, send invoices to all customers for the week at the touch of a button. Great, isn’t it?
Ok, you already know what to do to go ahead the competitors, but you’re not sure which booking form will best fit you? Our favourite is ServiceOS, because of its huge range of features and its completely affordable price. Want to see it in action before you make a decision?
Book your completely free demo here.
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