The Top 5 Excuses for Not Sending a Service Reminder Email
August 2, 2021 | Read: 8 minutes
When it comes to something as simple as sending out a service reminder email, procrastination is not just the thief of time—it’s robbing your business of profits!
In this post, we’ve listed the five most common excuses owners and managers tell themselves for not sending out a timely service reminder.
While some excuses can be valid, that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them with the right tools and planning!
But when it comes to not sending a service reminder email, do any of these excuses sound familiar?
1. “We don’t have the time to send reminders!”
Not having time isn’t necessarily any one person’s fault. It could even be that you’ve become a victim of your own success.
Being busy is great, but it can mean that time is more scarce. This makes it difficult to reflect and find the space to refocus.
If losing time seems to be an issue, there could be several explanations for what’s holding you back.
The first is that nobody in the organisation has been specifically tasked to send service reminders. If it’s done ad-hoc, it means opportunities can easily slip through the net. Also, if everybody thinks it’s someone else’s responsibility, then you’ll never find a solution.
So, first and foremost: ensure someone is responsible and that there are clear processes in place. This will make creating and sending service reminders easier.
Time management is a legitimate problem, and time is not always a service, maintenance, or installation business’ best friend. Jobs are often very time-sensitive and numerous factors that can make finding time feel both difficult and daunting.
Of course, that’s where job management software can come in. With it, you can streamline all sorts of daily tasks to free up time and make things easier to manage.
In the case of service reminders, good software will help your team to automatically create and send service reminder emails! When your service reminder process is powered by this solution, you’ll benefit in more ways,
For instance, you can provide customers with a link to an online booking portal. This means they’re not just getting a helpful nudge, but can book appointments, too! How about that for saving time?
3 Ways to Improve Time Management For Your Field Service Business
2.“Reminders only generate low-revenue jobs”
On the face of it, this may appear to be true. Depending on the assets you’re servicing, service jobs range between £75-100. Individually, it can seem like there’s not much incentive once you break down expenses: travel, petrol, pay, parts, etc.
However, if you consider the alternative, routine service visits can actually play a big part in generating job opportunities. They also increase the chances of upselling to your customers.
For example, a routine service visit might identify that a customer needs a replacement boiler in the next 12 months.
The customer, who trusts you for having carried out (let’s say) 3 years’ worth of service appointments, is more likely to book a premium installation job, rather than with a competitor.
Even if this is not the case, low-revenue jobs are better than no jobs. If you’re using smart job scheduling software that helps you to schedule more efficiently, your services can be an even more profitable venture.
After all, if you can keep the costs down, then suddenly these undesirable jobs can actually boost profitability! Well-organised bookings can become very lucrative.
Also, when used effectively, service reminders will help you to generate work during periods of reduced activity. For instance, in the quieter summer months, these check-ups can make all the difference to your end-of-year financial results.
Explore the service reminder calculator!
3. “Service reminders deflect from our growth strategy”
Service companies that are engaged in an ambitious growth strategy often find that their resources are stretched. You might be throwing out tenders left, right, and centre, but putting all your eggs in one basket comes with risks.
The danger is that you can end up neglecting the activities that made you successful in the first place. Of course, to climb the ladder you need to develop a profit-focused business strategy that drives bigger business your way. However, until those appear (and even when they are locked in) regular service work will always be useful. Think of it as your “bread and butter” income.
Sure, it may not be exciting, but it’s sustaining and helps to keep engineers busy, avoid costly downtime, and keeps cash flowing, without becoming an administrative burden.
Sounds good?
For many field service businesses this excuse, ultimately, is an invalid one.
Service reminders should be a part of your growth strategy. With online booking making arranging appointments easier, it blends nicely to make for efficient, customer-pleasing interactions.
It’s also a great way to spread your “eggs” to different baskets. This gives you more job security through work that is reliable, bankable, and sustainable.
4. “I would rather focus on building new customer relationships”
This excuse only applies if you regard service reminders in the narrowest terms.
In fact, if you are focused on building customer relationships, then service reminders play a huge role in building new and old relationships alike.
As we’ve already touched upon, a service reminder email is not only a great way to try and build revenue with job opportunities, but it helps you to build on the oldest principle between buyers and sellers: establishing trust.
Unlike advertising or “touting for business”, a service reminder email is a legitimate reason for customers to be in regular contact with you and vice versa.
Odds are, if you’ve done work for a customer before, they’ll have assets—be it an HVAC unit, boiler, or security system—that need to be maintained. If you make it clear that beyond installations you’re invested in keeping assets in good working order, you have reasonable grounds to send regular service reminders.
By using this method customers are more likely to keep you in mind beyond just one job.
For new customers, seeing you’re dedicated to maintaining assets will be a big encouragement! Why shop around when you’re providing the services they need?
Convenience is king.
You can even go on to use these opportunities in other creative ways. That could include giving the customer a brief update about developments at your company or highlighting new products and technologies you can provide them with. You could even advertise limited offers that they’d otherwise miss out on.
5. “We won’t be able to cope with the volume”
This is a problem that lots of companies would welcome! Well, if they know they can cope, at least.
Of course, if you send out a mass communication you may find that you get more bookings than you can cope with, and not being able to organise them all can make you look unprofessional. That’s why scheduling work in your quiet periods can be an especially good idea.
We’ve already touched on this briefly, too, but hiring new help can ensure you’re able to thrive and can cope with the volume of work, too. Of course, if you have the capability to schedule your service reminders and send them out in more appropriately sized batches to manage monthly workloads and seasonal periods, your team will find it much easier to cope with this problem!
With great organisation, afforded to you by job management software, your team can make online booking easier than ever and demonstrate to customers that you are a well-organised, professional, and reliable service.
You can also improve customer service because it’s evident you provide plenty of notice, especially as reminders automatically notify customers at regular intervals. This way no one ever forgets an appointment, or how easy it is to book online.
Here’s how to send a great service reminder email
We don’t want to underestimate the challenges that face businesses of all shapes and sizes. As we’ve said, the concerns raised above can all come from legitimate places.
However, with the right tools, a good mindset, and creating the space you need to prepare, you can make the necessary changes. A simple service reminder email can ensure that these jobs become a straightforward but impactful part of the overall service you provide.
In the end, you may find them to be more worthwhile than you first thought, letting you do more work in less time, and all without having to hire extortionate amounts of engineers and admin staff to help you cope!
With the right software in place and booking online combined with some imaginative marketing, there is no excuse for not getting on top of service reminder emails with a vital tool that can drive a healthy cash flow that boosts profits.
To top it off, download your free guide (with useful templates) to help you write a service reminder. Use it to make make sure you’re getting the best responses from your service reminders:
