For more than fifty years, the family-owned electrician company, Clinton Electric, has served the Baltimore area and prides itself on providing excellent customer service to over 50,000 loyal residential and commercial customers, many of whom are repeat customers or referrals.
Connecting With Customers
Despite its long-standing presence in the industry, Clinton Electric strives to continuously strengthen its reputation within the community and improve its practices and services.
They understand that cultivating trust from homeowners is key to the success of their business, no matter how much experience they have. Why? Within the home services industry especially, having a reputable, trustworthy brand is vital. In most cases, consumers are required to invite these businesses into their most personal spaces: their homes.
Knowing this, it’s no surprise how much homeowners rely on others’ experiences to determine whether or not a particular home service provider is worth considering. Businesses with poor and/or few online reviews tend to spark red flags, whereas those with a high number of positive reviews seem credible, and therefore worth a call.
“People live and die by Google reviews, and if business owners and managers don’t think that today, they’re not running their business on the right track. . . and we definitely weren’t ahead of that curve,” says Jeff Katz, Residential Service Manager at Clinton Electric.
Reviews also help technicians continuously assess and improve the quality of their service and provide customers with a platform to express what they most value in and expect from a business.
Engage Customers Through Online Platforms
In addition to reviews, social media and other online platforms are the perfect channels for businesses to engage with existing and potential customers. Through social media, text, and email marketing campaigns, companies have the ability to reach a significantly larger number of users, and their messaging can easily be personalized to better target a specific audience.
“If you’re thinking of phone book and print ads, that still works here and there, but the wave of the future is all social media and reaching out to people through [these channels],” Jeff adds.
Clinton Electric admittedly didn’t focus on establishing a stronger online presence until the competitive environment essentially forced it upon them. Fortunately, they discovered two products that could help them (1) achieve a more credible online reputation AND (2) better communicate with existing and potential customers: pulseM and Customer Lobby
Utilizing pulseM and Customer Lobby Together
PulseM helps businesses within the home services industry generate Google reviews, resulting in organic growth through referrals, a stronger brand, and a competitive advantage.
Customer Lobby, on the other hand, integrates over 150 invoicing systems to help its members proactively communicate with their customers who are most likely in need of additional services. Their email, text, and postcard marketing campaigns, combined with an algorithm that ensures a homeowner receives the right message at the right, ensure that their members get more repeat business and stay top-of-mind with their customers.
Independently, these platforms are able to solve issues that are specific to one area of focus.
However, when used together, these solutions truly thrive. PulseM attracts new business and Customer Lobby ensures that business keeps coming back. Between the two, the entire customer journey is covered.
Clinton Electric Results
Clinton Electric strives to consistently grow its team of technicians and schedule more appointments each year in order to expand and strengthen its customer relationships.
Since implementing both pulseM’s PulseChecks and Customer Lobby’s Branding Campaign, Clinton Electric has seen growth in various aspects of the business, internally and externally.
Two years before Clinton Electric started utilizing pulseM, they only had nine Google reviews. In terms of reviews generated, “in about a year and a half, we went from nine Google reviews to over 1000 Google reviews and turned their 4.9-star rating into 5 stars. . .[Customer Lobby and pulseM] built our reputation,” Jeff Katz cites.
The number of referrals and repeat customers have also increased, along with revenue growth. Jeff Katz states that “we have picked a ton of business that we wouldn’t have seen if we weren’t sending those postcards. . .[Customer Lobby] expanded our business to people that we never would’ve gotten revenue from. . .when we started using Customer Lobby and pulseM, we were bringing in around 2 million dollars in revenue, and this year we’re forecasted to do 8 million”. In fact, Jeff Katz reported that Clinton Electric generated an additional $591,000 in revenue after only six months of implementing Customer Lobby.
Clinton Electric’s team of technicians has also grown, as Jeff Katz mentions that “we’ve grown from three or four technicians when we first started with pulseM, and now I’m adding my 10th technician”.
In the end, one outcome is clear: Clinton Electric’s incorporation of Customer Lobby and pulseM has resulted in unprecedented growth and positive change throughout the company. Jeff Katz claims that “you completely changed everything in our philosophy. I champion both of these brands all the time. . .[Customer Lobby and pulseM] came together under one umbrella and we’re able to utilize both of you. You’re doing something different and it just makes so much sense.”
Takeaways
Together, pulseM and Customer Lobby cover the entire transaction and formation of lasting relationships with customers due to a few key capabilities:
- Companies can utilize marketing efforts that turn one-time customers into repeat customers through purposeful and timely messaging.
- Personalized marketing messages lead to more appointment bookings and therefore an increase in revenue.
- Online reviews affirm a company’s legitimacy and loyalty and help technicians perform better through feedback.
Support