Have you ever had a bad experience with a salesperson? Unfortunately, you are not alone. Your friends, family, and colleagues all have horror stories surrounding a poor interaction with a salesperson. Myself included! That's why at ECI Comfort, we put so much emphasis on flexible, educational, no-pressure consultations.
When purchasing my most recent vehicle, I was approached by a salesman, who seemed great at first. After test driving one car, I asked a question, which he did not seem to care for. When I asked to see a different car, I could sense how annoyed he became. After a second test drive, I made my decision that I would like to purchase the car.
This is where things turned around. I received an estimate for my trade-in, far below what it should be, without a dollar off the price of the car. I remember negotiating (my inner salesmen), and asking if either number could change. His response was to yell at me and say "it is what it is!" Little did he know I used to work there, and as I stood up and walked away without comment, my old manager grabbed me and asked what happened. I explained the situation, tempers cooled, and I got paired with a new salesman - who streamlined my purchase and made the experience pleasurable.
Moral of the story is: how a sale or consultation goes and the overall customer service makes a big difference to customers when making a big purchase.
Steps of Our Consultations
1) Initial conversation with an office staff member or specialist (can be over phone, email, or text).
2) You will choose a type of consultation and time (can be in person or a phone/video call, available weekdays and Saturday's).
3) We will gauge your comfort concerns to provide you and the specialist with more information.
4) You will meet with the specialist. If in person, they will text/call you to let you know they're on the way.
5) You will have a conversation with the specialist to go over your concerns and priorities so that the best solutions can be found.
6) The specialist will look at your home, check out existing equipment, take pictures and measurements, etc.
7) After going over every detail, the specialist will come up with a proposal for you, either on the spot or following your appointment via email.
8) If you are happy with the proposed solutions and choose to work with us, we will order your equipment and get your installation scheduled.
9) Before the installation, there will be a pre-install walkthrough to adjust/finalize important details and make sure you are satisfied.
10) Your specialist will stay in touch with you post-install to make sure everything has met/exceeded your expectations.
To go over the experience in a little more detail, read more below!
Importance of Customer Service
In a study done by Microsoft, a Hubspot.com article quotes, “90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company.” Putting effort into customer service, from the office, to sales, to the install and service teams, makes a huge impact on a customer’s experience and satisfaction. Tony Hsieh talked about customer service in his book, Delivering Happiness, as his primary business model when turning Zappos into an incredible company. Their training started with answering phone calls and providing the best customer service imaginable. He even went as far as offering new hires $2,500 to quit if they did not like Zappos’ mission!
At ECI Comfort, these are all qualities we believe in. Each and every customer we have an opportunity to work with, we provide quality interactions to make their experience great. From the first point of contact - whether it is an email, phone call, or text message, we give our customer our full attention.
The "Comfort Consultation" Experience
When scheduling a sales appointment, or as we say “comfort consultation,” we schedule to the customer’s preference. The initial conversation can be through text, email, or phone -- whatever works best for you. When it comes to the appointment time, early morning, afternoon, early evening, and Saturdays are available -- whatever you need, we can make it work! We even offer different styles of comfort consultations, such as in-person or phone/video calls. Our office staff is excellent at conversing to provide helpful information and answer as many questions as possible during this initial conversation.
When scheduling this appointment, we gauge your comfort concerns and see what type of solution you may be looking for. With this in mind, our office staff follows up immediately with an email including different projects of ours and supplemental information surrounding your interests! This helps educate our customers to lead to impactful questions and assistance in decision making during the comfort consultation.
The next step is meeting with one of our Comfort Specialists, such as Owen, Darren, Ron, or myself (Joe). We are sure to give a call or text message when we are on our way so you are aware of our arrival time. Upon arrival, we introduce ourselves at the door to create a familiar environment for both parties. Masks and shoe covers are on hand, and we can accommodate any specific needs you may have.
A general conversation takes place asking you, the homeowner, what the comfort concerns in your home are. Poor heating or cooling, hot/cold spots, old equipment, inefficiency, or just a desire to increase comfort are the standards; but whatever your concern is, we are there to seek a solution. The specialist will explore your home, checking out existing equipment, new locations, room sizes, etc. We take pictures and measurements in order to accurately design, size, and quote a new system.
From there, we may be able to provide a proposal on the spot, allowing for an in-person breakdown. If the project is tricky, or if you are short on time, we are more than happy to provide it via email and follow up with a second visit or phone/video call to discuss the solution that we came up with.
Next up, the conversation continues until the system is perfected to your standards, to solve all of your comfort concerns. Once a solution is reached, a privileged moment occurs: we will ask you to work with us at ECI Comfort. At this point, we hope that all of our interactions and information provided has provided you with an understanding, appreciation, and excitement for the project which was proposed. If we earn the chance to work with you, it comes time to move forward to our pre-install walkthrough and installation process, which you can read more about by clicking the button below.
Your specialist will stay in touch with you through each step of the process, from signature and deposit, to the walkthrough and through the installation. They are there for any support, questions, or concerns! Once the installation is complete, the specialist will follow up again, ensuring the project was completed to your happiness and satisfaction.
ECI’s confidence in this process, from start to finish, ensures this final “good-bye” is always ended with well wishes from both parties. I even like to stay in touch in months following, just to see how our comfort solution was able to change the homeowners' lives!
It's also important to mention, it's really not a goodbye, as ECI will be there for you for any future questions, concerns, or service needs.
If you live in the Delaware Valley/Greater Philadelphia area and would like to find comfort within your home, visit our website or give us a call at 215 - 245 - 3200 to learn more.
