EP #11: Do business with people you know, like, and trust

In a day and age, it's tough to find a niche where you have few competitors. Paver Protectors has been in business since 2011 and over the years, I've seen at least 20 new competitors enter the Southwest Florida market where we live. So how do I set my company apart from so many competitors?

In the book Go-Giver, which is written by Bob Burg and John David Mann, there's a quote that says ..."all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust." In fact, Bob has been using that quote as his golden rule of business.

In this episode, I'm gonna give you some examples of how we set ourselves apart using Bob's principle and how you can too. To learn more about us, visit PaverProtectors.com.

Transcript

Welcome to the Adventures in Paver Sealing podcast, with your host, Jeff Evers of Paver Protectors. Welcome to the Adventures of Paver Sealing podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Evers. And today I've got a few comments from people that have watched our podcast and they want to know "what sets you apart from other people that do what you do or just businesses in general?" I've had consumers ask me this as well as other businesses that say, you know, "how do you separate yourself apart?" And I have found that to separate yourself from your competitors, it's important to have relationships with your customers. Taking care of your clients, through relationships with them and earning their loyalty and recommendations is what I want to talk about today.

Here at Paver Protectors, we have a stellar reputation on sites like Google, Angie's List, Better Business Bureau, and Facebook just to name a few. Now how do we get that reputation? Well, it takes more than doing just a good job. It comes from building those relationships that I talked about. Now, building relationships with your clients is extremely important. Studies have shown that people that do business with companies that they know and can trust. In the book Go-Giver, which is written by Bob Burg and John David Mann, there's a quote that says ..."all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust." In fact, Bob has been using that quote as his golden rule of business.

So why do you think that is? Well, if you think about it, wouldn't you want to do business with someone you know, that you like, and that you trust? I know I do. If I like you and trust you, I definitely want to do business with you. I'm probably not even going to shop around as long as your price is competitive in the market. If you think about the first part of that quote, all things being equal, this is very important.

Now in our industry of brick paver cleaning and sealing, sometimes things are not equal and that could work to your advantage. Here are a few examples of what we do that keeps us from not being equal and sets us apart from our competition. If you're equal, every company has these things: properly insured, both workers' comp and general liability, proper training and experience, experience with chemicals involved in the process (especially hazardous chemicals), and proper licensing on both the county and state levels. Those are where most businesses are equal because if they're a legit business, they should automatically have these things.

Now, what differentiates you and what I call differentiators, which are not equal, this is what may set you apart from your competition. What builds the trust people have in you? How do your clients know you? What makes your clients like you? These are the differentiators. Differentiators, such as personalization.

Does your service have that personal touch? Some ways that we add that personal touch is we have a system that will email our clients when we schedule their job to confirm what is being done and when. Our system will also email our clients a reminder the day before the appointment and let them know the name of the technician that will be coming out. When we are on our way to the job, our clients will get a text, notifying them that we are on our way. Upon completion of every job, our clients will get a text asking them for a review, to review our services and let us know how we're doing. Now every job gets a follow up email the following day to make sure the client is satisfied and to let them know that we are here, should they have any questions about the job that we have done.

We also offer a VIP maintenance program, in-person estimates. We have educational videos that range from our process to frequently asked question videos. Those are on our website and also videos about our entire process that customers can view and see what we are all about. We give detailed estimates that offer several options that our clients can make an informed decision and only pay for what they want. And we also provide a list of references to our consumers, should they want that.

Transparency and documentation is also very important. Transparency will help build that trust. Pictures of the jobs that you've done before and after, depending on what you do for a living. Time stamps on each and every job, as well as estimates, detailed notes taken on each job, list of all materials used on each job. These are things that we can provide to our customers should they ask. All this stuff is recorded within our system. The customers just love when we send them pictures of the work that we do, because a lot of times they're out of town and they don't see it. And because of the COVID pandemic, this has become very important to our customers. They're paying for work that they're not actually seeing. And when they get those pictures, it really sets us apart from some of our competitors that don't do that.

Now, if you're a business and you are set up in a way that people know like, and trust you, do your customers know your employees' names? Ours do! Seventy-five percent of our online reviews, our clients mentioned our employees by name in the review. Do you know your customer by name? How about the dog's name? How about important birthdays or anniversaries? These are a few things that will really set you apart in your customer's eyes. This is how people will come to like you and trust you.

I had a business in Michigan, (I had a window cleaning business) and I can tell you a story about a customer by the name of, Jeanie Karen. Now Jeanie had her windows done by us every single month. Now when my guys pulled up, we had dog treats for her dog, Riley. It's kind of funny. We had dog treats for all of our customers that had dogs and Jeanie would tell me a story about, she always knew when we're coming, because Riley would go crazy when she'd see our car coming down the street. And funny thing is she'd go crazy when we do the neighbors too. So she wasn't sure when we were coming to her house, but when we did, it really made the customer feel good because her dog was so excited to see us.

Now that's a true story. And I could tell you one thing, Jeannie would never switch our company for another company to save $50. We had built that relationship with her as well as with her dog. And if you have a pet, you know, if the dog likes you, the homeowner's gonna like you. So that's one of the things that we did with my company in Michigan. And then we also send thank you cards to our customers. We let them know that they're appreciated. A lot of times when customers refer us to other customers we send thank you cards sometimes with a gift card. We don't do this on every single job, but we try to, and it has really gained loyalty from our customers through the years.

Now, if you're a homeowner, couple of questions I'd like to ask you is, "does your contractor put your needs first?" Or does (s)he just recommend what will make them the most money? I know with us, a lot of times we talk people out of doing something because it's not really in their best interest. It's not going to make a difference. And we're not here to take your money. We're here to help you and make sure the job is done right.

Also does the person you use at your house, do they have a maintenance program to help you maintain whatever it is that they are servicing? This is vitally important. Maintenance helps keep things in good shape and saves you money in the long haul because typically maintenance programs offer discounted pricing.

Now, these are all things that are important to think about when it comes to relationships. Whether you're a business owner or a consumer, you want a relationship that will benefit all involved and a relationship that will carry into the future.

So in closing, just remember, people want to do business with people that they they know, like, and trust. To the homeowners out there, there's always someone who could do the job cheaper, but at what cost? Again, all things being equal, do businesses with those, you like, know, and trust.

And to the business owner, run your business in a way that people will have no reason to look any further or to find anybody else. Build that trust with your potential clients, get to know them, and help them whenever possible. When you do this, they will like you and you will have a customer for life.

So I hope this has been helpful, and I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have a story to share, I would love to hear it. Whether you're a consumer or a business owner, you can always email me at paverprotectors88@gmail.com and maybe we'll share your story in a future podcast. So thank you for tuning in today. And I look forward to seeing you in our next episode of Adventures in Paver Sealing podcast. Have a great day.

Thank you for listening to the Adventures in Paver Sealing podcast. To learn more about Paver Protectors, please visit paverprotectors.com or call (239) 288-0705.