Small Business Service Contractors
At ManageCasa, we understand that it can be tough for a local residential maintenance and service contractor to compete with the large chains. Yet, it might only take some study and little ingenuity to turn the tables in your favor.
It’s wise to examine these company’s strengths and weaknesses and find service benefits where you can shine.
If big companies real advantage is in brand image, then you can counter that particular one with remarketing ads on FB, Twitter, and Google, and a new clean, fast website. ManageCasa can help you with a new website.
If big competitor’s advantage is more complete service, you could team up with plumbers, electricians, home reno contractors, and others to provide more complete services. You can use our software to integrate them into your business virtually. This keeps you connected, even central to the full results your landlord clients need.
We’ve got some more tips below to help you keep up with the big property management franchises, who keep impinging on your territory.
What Landlords Really Want
In our previous posts, we discussed what landlords are looking for in property management service providers, how they find them, and what landlords top pain points are.
Landlords recognize that quality, versatility, and professionalism are important are. Small business property management service businesses can offer the flexibility and care that most landlords want.
The big chain property management companies won’t offer the human touch or extra effort to help the landlord be successful and keep their tenants happy. For the property management franchises, it might be everything to the letter of the service contract including responsiveness and customer care.
ManageCasa shares a few tips with you on how you move the service advantage to your favor.
Find Your Service Niche
Scope out the current local market and understand the competitors you face, both big and small. Analyzing the current local market offerings can help you differentiate your services and products. You can be more generalized or specialized, price on the high-end or for the budget conscious, use recognized products or use products for environmentally conscious customers, all as examples.
Service Selection
Service is an area where small boutique businesses and shops generally have an edge over national chains. However, the big chains have caught on, and in turn, began focusing more on their service component as well. One key area is offering your services more a la carte giving landlords the ability to get exactly what they need. The big service contractors won’t do this. You can use your property management software to help you offer more explicit and detailed services. It’s online and available via your smartphone.
This way, you know what your contract obligations are, and it helps you give a laser clear understanding of your better services for the landlord. As part of service excellence, greet your customers, especially return customers by name, know when they need their next servicing, and provide more flexibility on availability and scheduling.
Customer Rewards / Referral Program
A little extra effort here can help. Realtors develop new leads in a similar way to build reach into the community. Loyalty programs are a great way to retain new customers or entice initially skeptical customers. It could be as simple as a 20% discount on their next servicing for every referral, or a certain amount off every 5th service call.
Be Tech-Savvy
- Make sure to get your service business website up and running, with information on your services, contact information, and potentially even scheduling features. One thing people like to see are before and after photos of the work that you have done, or personal reviews from satisfied customers.
- using property management software is a key way to show you are with it technologically speaking.
- Make sure to keep the page up to date by posting new photos or even blogs often to let your customers know your business is thriving, and that you can easily contactable!
- And last not least, don’t forget about some old-fashioned advertising! Post papers, ads on bulletins, through your local newspapers or supermarket pages! Just remember that your brand image is reflected in the sites where you advertise. Ads on some websites might erode that image of quality.
You can compete more effectively against the big property management franchises. They are bound by their service contracts and sometimes contractors who just do their jobs. You can set your small business apart using the property management tools available and a flexible adaptable service array that shows you really do care.
ManageCasa is an elegantly, simplified property management software, perfect for small business landlords, contractors, and small property management companies. See the full list of features.
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