7 Ways Service Reminders Help to Grow Your Business
December 13, 2021 | Read: 10 minutes
A birthday, an anniversary, a job for a customer… No matter how good we think our memory is, we can all be a bit forgetful.
Thankfully, that’s where a service reminder comes in handy.
The way we use technology today can help many of us from being forgetful.
Whether through a voice note or a short typed message, digital tools can make it easier for even the least tech-savvy amongst us to benefit from alarms and notifications that help us keep our schedules.
At Commusoft, service reminders are among the most popular software feature that people ask for, and it’s easy to see why…
Here are the seven ways that service reminders can help.
1. Service reminders enable you to plan ahead.
A service reminder is a message (usually an email, letter, or SMS) used to inform customers of an upcoming job, appointment, or another service.
This could be for an appliance that needs a yearly inspection, such as a boiler, or perhaps you’ve got SLAs for frequent check-ups at different properties. Whatever the case, a service reminder gives customers a nudge to book a job with your team.
With enough notice, appointments are likely to be arranged at times that keep everyone happy. Regularly scheduled work will help to keep your engineers busy during slower seasons, too.
Getting your personal schedule straight is one thing, but handling customer enquiries is another. This is why a CRM that helps you manage service reminders easily can be so helpful. Software tools can help your team to nurture healthy customer relationships.
By sending out service reminders early (and without having to rely on someone to remember to check for appointments manually) you can take control of the scheduling process and ensure that you’re crafting the perfect customer journey.
2. Keep your customers from going to the competition.
We can’t stress enough the importance of timeliness. But you know this, too. If you’re the first to inform customers of an upcoming service, you’re far less likely to miss out on their business.
However, you need to be systematic in your approach. You know that service reminders are a necessity for landlords, or when working with an estate agent business.
In these scenarios, clients are under a legal obligation to obtain specific services and certificates and knowing that can influence your approach to service reminders and, ultimately, scheduling.
Offering a reminder at the right time is key to your success: send a reminder too early and the customer is likely to ignore it; send it too late and the customer might give the job to someone else.
To secure a service, your responses also need to be swift.
If you have sent a service reminder and you don’t receive a timely reply, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to follow up. It could be via a telephone call, SMS, or email (but not all three at once, you don’t want to overwhelm your customer or come across as money-grubbing!)
Of course, with service reminder software, you can automate the follow-up process as well, saving you time from chasing customers until you really need to!
3. Deliver personalised customer service.
Bespoke customer service is about more than just good timing. You want the customer to feel like you know who they are.
A name, a comment about previous work history, or a polite request can make the difference between establishing (and maintaining) a good relationship or alienating a customer.
With a customer database at your disposal, you can access and apply customer information to help you provide a more personalised service. Customer database and service reminder software will make this even easier.
Of course, to save even more time, you should consider creating and implementing templates to suit different customers or different types of services. Using templates makes it even easier to become a fully paperless business.
Service Reminder Top Tips for Different Types of Customers:
It’s a good idea to set up a couple of different templates for your service reminders.
If you’re a plumbing or heating business, you’ll need at least two templates: one for letting agents & landlords, and one for private customers. You can always apply these tips to your own clientele, regardless of your field service speciality:
- For Letting Agents and Landlords:
They’ll just need a concise reminder detailing all the tenant properties and required services. As these services are a legal requirement, this reminder is more of a notification to act, rather than a sales pitch. - For Private customers:
They’re not under the same legal obligations as Letting Agents and Landlords, so their service reminders should be of a more advisory nature. We’ve provided some examples and templates in the guide available at the end, but a good rule of thumb is to be friendly, polite, and make it easy for customers to communicate (more on that shortly).
A good rule of thumb is to not send the same information for every type of service reminder. Minor adjustments to the wording you use in a service reminder can have an impact on how well and how quickly the customer responds, so even when automating the process, it’ll help to keep your target audience in mind and check things over.
4. Promote brand awareness.
A service reminder can also be a valuable marketing tool for your business.
Even if it’s only a couple of times a year that you reach out, it’s a great opportunity to make an impression.
You might use a service reminder as an opportunity to spread the word about a new service you provide, membership plans you’ve created, or simply share some interesting news about the company. Whatever it is, the message should demonstrate something of value to get a customer’s attention.
A little personalisation can go a long way and making sure your brand sits front and centre will keep your company in the customer’s mind.
It’s important to communicate professionally, too. Be brief, to the points, and strike a balance with a friendly approach: do this and then you can’t really go wrong.
Our free communication templates can help with that, too!
5. Improve your preventive maintenance strategy.
Service reminder software and the reminders themselves are vital when it comes to providing a quality preventative maintenance plan. From time to time (i.e. if a warranty deadline is looming) it’s useful to introduce some urgency to your messaging.
You can do this with a light touch: simply pointing out that a warranty will expire is one way to do this, but using bold text—URGENT DEADLINE—will get their attention. No one wants to void their boiler warranty if they can help it, and with enough notice, customers will appreciate bringing the job to their attention.
In addition, if the customer is an owner-occupier, you might want to make an oblique reference to the fact that a regular service record is important when putting a property on the market. The bottom line? Not servicing their equipment can be costly.
Likewise, you can mention that annual gas safety certificates might be required in the event of an insurance claim. These come across as helpfully informative, rather than aggressive or pushy.
6. Create reliable, recurring income.
Every interaction with a customer is a potential sales opportunity, and that includes service reminders. Here are some effective ways you could time service reminders
- Consider offering seasonal discounts (e.g., summer boiler services) to encourage bookings during off-peak times.
- Promote an additional services or up-sell in the reminder email; reliability builds trust and opens customers up to potential opportunities.
- Include tailored offers in reminder templates to address common needs you’ve helped other customers with: it will show you’re proactive and resourceful.
- Offer simple advice customers can action themselves. Regular communication strengthens customer relationships and positions you as a trusted advisor.
What’s the outcome of all this?
Customers are more likely to book recurring services, explore out home service plan or contract, and this can contribute to reliable recurring revenue. A win-win for both sides.
Discover how using service reminders can impact your revenue:
➡️ Service Reminders: Recurring Revenue Calculator! ⬅️
7. Offer flexible communication options.
To make all of this possible, it’s important you enable your customers to communicate in ways that suit them: that means making communication clear and concise.
Choosing the right format can be critically important in setting the right tone with customers, both old and new. When it comes to service reminders, there are essentially three options:
- Letters
- E-mails
- SMS (text messaging)
It is a good idea to ask what form of communication the customer would prefer in future, and make sure you update your database accordingly.
This also plays into the previously mentioned bespoke, personalised service, which is massively helped by a digital database and service reminder software.
After all, contacting customers in their preferred way is a great method of showing you listen and care about their personal preferences. It also has the added bonus of saving time and resources, and this is a big boon to your staff, too.
Reminders, I love reminders. Sending them for myself or other people to make sure jobs done.
Rob Williams, CP Jefferies Ltd.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Service Reminders
As discussed, service reminders can build customer loyalty, but common mistakes can hinder their impact. Avoid these pitfalls to ensure your reminders drive results:
- Sending messages too early or too late: Poor timing can lead to customer inaction or lost opportunities.
- Lack of personalization: Generic reminders fail to connect; tailor messages to customer preferences and needs.
- Overwhelming customers: Bombarding clients with multiple reminders can feel pushy and deter engagement.
- Ignoring follow-ups: A single reminder isn’t always enough; strategically follow up to close the loop.
- Neglecting preferred communication channels: Respect how your customers want to be reached (email, SMS, etc.).
By fine-tuning your reminder strategy, you’ll create a seamless customer experience while driving steady business growth.
Here’s How to Improve Your Service Reminders
You shouldn’t treat service reminders as a “tick the box” chore.
If used correctly, they are a great tool for retaining business, improving customer relationships, and can even help you promote your brand to win new business.
So, whether you’re in plumbing, heating, security, HVAC, or another type of field service: can you really afford to not be using service reminders?
Explore Commusoft’s service reminder software tools to get started! You’ll also find some helpful templates in our guide on how to write a powerful service reminder, below:
