Business is Slow? Send Thank You Cards

Summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder podcast, Branden Sewell discusses effective strategies for home service business owners to enhance customer relationships and improve conversion rates. He emphasizes the importance of handwritten thank you cards and the law of reciprocity in building lasting connections with clients. By creating a personal touch and showing appreciation, businesses can foster loyalty and encourage referrals, even during slow periods.

Takeaways

Sending handwritten thank you cards can enhance customer relationships.
Building relationships is crucial for business success.
The law of reciprocity encourages clients to return favors.
Personalized gestures can lead to increased conversion rates.
Creating a family activity around sending cards can be fun and effective.
Consistency in relationship-building strategies is key.
Offering something before earning business can create goodwill.
Thanking past clients can turn them into raving fans.
A simple coffee gift can leave a lasting impression.
These strategies should be used even when business is thriving.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Business Strategies
00:25 The Power of Handwritten Thank You Cards
01:13 Building Relationships Through Gratitude
02:26 Leveraging the Law of Reciprocity
04:04 Creating a Family Activity for Business Growth

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.186)
Hi everybody, Brandon Sewell. I'm the owner of Seal Pro Painting. I'm also the host of the Off the Ladder podcast. And we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Excuse me, if you've been joining in recently, you've probably seen that we're doing a short series of podcast episodes. And it's all about what to do when business is slow. So in the last...

Excuse me, in the last two episodes, we've talked about calling past clients and we've talked about sending out a monthly newsletter that is relational and not about sales. Today, we're gonna talk about handwritten thank you cards or cards in general to your clients. Now, this is a strategy, again, that I've done ever since I started my business. We would send out cards handwritten to customers.

What I used to do when I would send out those cards is I would put like five or six business cards in the card and I'd send it to a customer essentially asking for referrals. Now, my strategy with this changed also when I got a coach and a mentor who helped me to understand that those cards should be relational, not just about sales.

and maybe even about giving something rather than asking something or getting something from that customer. So what I started to do is a couple things. Any time that we would do an estimate for a customer, we would write a thank you card for the opportunity to do that estimate and put a $5 gift card to Starbucks in that

In that card and that card was just simply to say thank you for the opportunity to provide them with a free estimate for their project. We really appreciate it as a small local business and we want to just offer a coffee on us to say thank you for the opportunity now. That doesn't always turn into business, but it sure does increase your conversion rate if your conversion rate is lower.

Branden Sewell (02:25.27)
So in a time when business is slow, you're needing to convert more jobs. This is a great strategy for increasing that conversion rate and just creating a better experience for your customer. The other thing that you can do is you can send out cards to past clients. I've done this and I've turned clients into raving fans. Pick out some of your past clients that you had a good connection with.

You've done a lot of work for whatever criteria you want to come up with Write them a thank-you card and say hey, thank you for being a loyal customer over the years And and choosing, you know, so-and-so company for your projects Here's a coffee on us just to say thank you send out that card and you'll be amazed what kind of response you'll get from that and again, it's about creating a relationship it's about

showing your appreciation to your past clients and the clients that are giving you an opportunity to bid on work. And it also combines this law that I learned actually a long time ago when I was like 18 or 19. And it's the law of reciprocity. And what that law is is that if you do something for somebody else,

They're going to feel the need or the obligation to do something for you in return. So when you give and you know, you do it in a seemingly like it's like wow, this person gave to me and I didn't give anything to them. So in the example of sending a card, you know, a thank you card with a gift card to get a coffee from Starbucks.

I'm to a customer who maybe you haven't done work for in two three years. They might be thinking wow like they haven't even done work for me recently but they're sending me this this thank you card and a gift card to go get coffee and they'll really appreciate that and then next time they have a job they're gonna be thinking wow like I want to do something for for this company because they thought of me.

Branden Sewell (04:41.964)
You know, and then the other opportunity is, like I said, when you're doing those estimates and you can give something away before you ever earn their business. And that says a lot about you as a company. So it's a pretty simple strategy, but it's one that gets overlooked. And yes, it takes time for you to sit down and, know, I've done this with my family. We've sat down, we've looked at the the estimates that I've done.

and we'll make it a family activity. I'll write the cards, my wife will put the addresses on the envelopes, and my son puts the stamps on all of the envelopes, and then we send out those handwritten cards, and it's a great strategy. anyway, as you know, these episodes right now are short and to the point, but I hope this gives you some actual advice, something you can do today to start driving business if you're slow, and honestly, you should continue to do this.

consistently, even beyond business being slow because it creates great returns for your business. So anyway, thank you for tuning into this episode. And if you need any resources, resources are in the show notes below, and they're there to help you run your business. If you have any questions about any of the resources below, reach out to me directly. And as always, we'll see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.