Satisfaction guarantee is such a broad term for a company to use, so I want to talk about what it means to me and give some concrete examples. We’re in the customer service business (which is also a very broad term). If one of our clients is dissatisfied because we’ve failed them in some way, or if we set an expectation that we didn’t live up to, it takes a lot of humility to acknowledge it and say, “We failed you and we’re sorry.”
We make mistakes even though we strive so hard for perfection. Our teams overlook things, which can be easy sometimes with everything that’s going on. The mistakes we make—or our inability to deliver an expectation that has been given—is going to cause dissatisfaction. We always welcome a client to let us know if they aren’t satisfied because we really want to step up to the plate and do the right thing. We make it a high priority to try to respond to the customer within a few hours of learning their concern.
Over the last 6 to 12 months there’s been a couple of areas in the teams where we’ve struggled. It’s happened due to many different reasons—we’ve had a really wet, rainy year, and we’ve also had some staffing challenges. That has led to us not meeting expectations, with excavation being one example. When we dig a hole or work in someone’s yard, not getting the compaction done causes the dirt to settle. Around a month after a job, the settled dirt can result in a low spot in someone’s yard. (That’s definitely very frustrating for a client.) The wet year has been challenging for us because it’s very hard to compact mud. We’ve had a couple of clients call in and say they weren’t happy with the end product. We had to go back out and make sure we got the yard up to an acceptable level.
When we do a job, we’re focused on doing it right for our clients (even if that means losing money). Many times, the measuring stick of the client’s satisfaction is the best way to determine whether or not we did do the job right. We started offering HVAC last year and we now have a full year under our belt. There were (and still are) definitely challenges around staffing and growth in that area. As we hire new employees to join the HVAC team, we’ll see mistakes happen simply because a new employee may not have the full experience we anticipated. If a diagnosis was made improperly and the client tells us something isn’t working, we try to get right back out there. If there’s any uncertainty, we’re going to go out and review any work that was done by that technician.
We don’t want to make any assumptions. In a couple of occasions we’ve had to take ownership of a mistake and go back over everything with a fine-toothed comb. We want to make sure we’re proactive because we definitely don’t want to be surprised three months down the road when an issue has been going on unresolved. Those visits to a home cost money and take away from other areas as well, but we do them in the name of customer satisfaction and making sure we’re taking care of our clients.
If you want to work with a team that truly stands behind the satisfaction guarantee, reach out to us today. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.
