Service contracts can help cultivate customer loyalty

By J.R. Zirkelbach, New Leaf Service Contracts

Why do you sell service policies? Really give it some thought for a moment. 

To my mind, there are three main reasons to sell service policies to your customers:

  1. They are profitable and add needed margin to your sales.
  2. They give your salespeople an opportunity to increase their earnings.
  3. They provide a great service and value to your customers.

But which of these reasons is most important?

Profitability is certainly important. Without it your business wouldn’t be around very long. But if you make profitability the most important thing in your business, will your salespeople be able to provide for themselves and their families?  Will your customers receive the level of service they expect and deserve?

Probably not.  

Earnings opportunities for your salespeople are also certainly important. Without earnings opportunities, your salespeople will look for employment elsewhere. But if big paychecks for your sales team is your highest priority, is your business likely to be profitable? Are your customers likely to be well taken care of? Again, probably not. 

What about service and value to your customer? What if you made that your highest priority? Would your company be profitable? Absolutely! Would your salespeople have earnings opportunities? Of course!

It’s apparent, then, that providing excellent service to your customers should be your highest priority. If you accomplish that, then everything else that’s important will follow as a natural by-product of your customer service.

But how are you going to provide this excellent service? How are you going to meet the demands of your customers? One way is by protecting that customer with a service policy. Service policies enable you to deliver the service your customers demand while generating profits for your business and providing your salespeople with earnings opportunities, all at the same time.

There are golden threads between you and your customers. Those golden threads are your relationships with each and every one of them. When a golden thread is damaged or severed by not delivering on the service your customer expects, the relationship is over. That customer is no longer yours, and now belongs to your competitor.

Foster your customers’ loyalty to your business. Use service policies to build and strengthen those golden threads. 

J.R. Zirkelbach is a business development executive at New Leaf Service Contracts with a 30-year record in retail. Zirkelbach implements New Leaf-administered extended service programs for BrandSource members, which helps them provide exceptional service to customers, create earnings opportunities for salespeople and increase their overall profitability. Contact J.R. at jzirkelbach@newleafsc.net.

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