Consistent follow up can generate additional income and leads for you every month. But, many Consultants neglect to call not just because they are afraid of being pushy, but because they’re also overwhelmed with…
- When to call
- How to call
- What to say when they call
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My 2+2+2 method solves this issue by providing a systematic approach that takes the guesswork out of when to call and what to say.
When combined with the Power Hour , the 2+2+2 method will catapult your business.
2+2+2 helps increase your sales, bookings and recruiting by ensuring that you contact your customers at predetermined intervals that are proven to be optimal times to connect with them.
Some estimates attribute the 2+2+2 method with increasing income by 50%.
2+2+2 stands for two days, two weeks and two months.
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2-Days
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The first call you make to each customer is two days after they place their order or make their purchase from you, whether that was at a party, online, in person, or by calling you.
The ONLY purpose of this call is to thank them. That's it! You're not asking for anything. You make this call to demonstrate your gratitude. Simply, thank you.
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You might say: “Hi Mary! I met you at Sandy's house. I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was meeting you and I wanted to thank you again for your order.”
She may say, “Oh, well, thank you. I had a really great time.” Or she may say nothing.
You will then want to tell her when she can expect to receive her order and make sure she knows she can call you with questions: “I wanted to let you know your order should arrive by Thursday and upon receiving it, if you have any questions at all, Mary, please feel free to call me.”
And that’s it! The call takes less than a minute and being brief is important, because you’ll complete more of your calls and she will remember that you are respectful of her time.
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<Important> The reason we want to call in two days is because it is a proven fact that things stay exciting or top of mind for about three days. After that, the interest fades. This is true of a great restaurant you ate at, a concert you attended or a cute pair of shoes you passed on while shopping. It is also the case of the party or presentation they attended.
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Sometimes you’ll call a customer for your thank-you call two days after their purchase at a party and things will go differently. A lot of the time, your customer will have already been talking up your party and your products with her co-workers or friends. Quite often, they will ask her for a catalog, as well.
So, imagine for a moment what your thank-you call looks like in those situations? You call your customer, you thank that customer for their order, you tell them what a pleasure it was to meet them and they respond: “I was talking to my friends and a few ladies from work asked whether I could bring in a catalog. Could you send me one?”
This is your opportunity to suggest hosting a party with you: “Sure Allison, I could send you a catalog. But, to be perfectly honest, your best bet would be to host a party. You already have a couple of friends that want to order and I would much rather give you the credit for those orders instead of me just taking the orders.”
You will be amazed at how often someone who went to work or called a friend and talked about how much fun they had or how excited they were about what they ordered will opt to just go ahead and book a party. Suddenly your two-day customer-care call has secured another booking!
Or perhaps your customer got home and realized there were other items she wished she’d ordered or she’d meant to order. Maybe she went home after a party and gushed to her husband about an item she loved but didn’t get. You’d be amazed at how many spouses respond: “If you loved it, you should just have gotten it!”
So, imagine for a moment what your thank-you call looks like in those situations. You call, you thank that customer for their order, you tell them what a pleasure it was to meet them and they respond: “Is it too late to add onto my order because I wanted to go ahead and get…”.
Or they say something like: “I was talking about it to my husband and I do want to get that cookware. I thought it was too much to spend, but he said go ahead.”
This is your opportunity to suggest hosting a party with you. “Well, Mary, would you like to go ahead and book a party so that you can get that cookware half off, or did you want to place an order for that right now?”
You will be amazed at how often someone who had second thoughts and wanted to add to the original order decides to accept your offer to host a party during your thank-you call two days later. Suddenly your two-day customer-care call has secured another booking for you.
Now, only about 8-10 percent of your two-day calls will result in add-on orders, but about 20% of these types of calls will turn into parties on your calendar. It’s also important to understand: it’s rare for someone who has realized that they’d like to add to their order to pick up the phone and call you. They presume it’s too late. Plus, people are busy and they forget. However, if you just pick up the phone and make that thank-you call two days after the order, you’re providing an easy opportunity for them to update their order and you’re already providing superior service to them.
People often ask me, do I have to make a phone call for every one of these 2+2+2 or can I text or use e-mail? I always answer that I prefer calling but other communication is fine. But the one you will get the greatest ROI of your time is the first two day call.
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2-Weeks
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The second call you make to each customer is two weeks after they have received their order.
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The purpose of this call is to provide service. You still aren’t have to ask for an order or a booking. You are showing up to be of service to them as one of your existing customers. So you’d call them and the conversation might go like this:
You: “I just wanted to make sure you received your product in good condition.”
Your Recent Customer: “I did. Thank you!”
You: (in an effort to elicit feedback) “Are you enjoying your product?” or “How is your product working?” or “What have you noticed with your new product?” or another question like that tailored to the product they ordered.
The positive feedback you get during these calls is valuable, because you can use those stories during your presentations or when you’re sharing the benefits of your products with others. Any feedback that is not-so-positive gives you and opportunity to shine and address any issues. This is your chance to help them correct the way they’re using the product if it’s not optimal, or suggest a different additional product or help them get their money back if appropriate. Being able to take great care of them is one of the reasons you’re calling again after two weeks.
Regardless of how glowing the feedback is, you will want to ask them how you can help them today and reiterate that you are available and that she should feel free to contact you with any questions going forward.
And during this particular call, this second customer-care call made two weeks after the order is received, the last thing you’re going to say, after you’ve asked, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” is: “Carolyn, I value you as a customer and customer service is very important to me. From time-to-time, I would like to touch base with you to see if there's anything else I can do to take care of your needs. Would that be okay with you?”
That last part is crucial, because you’re making a commitment to the customer to keep in touch, which will make it more likely that you actually will call. And you’re getting their agreement, so that you can feel good about calling to provide them excellent service.
Exception: In the rare case that your customer responds to your offer to touch base periodically, with something like “Don't bother!” or “I’ll call you if I need anything.” consider it a great time saver for you. Just be gracious, agree, thank them and move on. You may feel a little rejected, but that will pass and you have just saved yourself a ton of time spent calling someone who isn’t interested in hearing from you (or likely any representative).
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2-Months
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The third call you make to each customer is approximately two months after your second call. It doesn’t have to be precisely two months, but you will want to schedule these for yourself so that you don’t have anyone fall through the cracks. In my training The Power Hour, you’ll learn a system that can help you stay on track for all of the 2+2+2 Method of customer care, as well as your other follow-up calls to booking and recruit leads.
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This two-month call is one where you deepen rapport and you’re checking in with a customer who now feels like they know you better. These calls are more free-form, touching-base call, because the topics are going to depend on what you learned from them when you met them originally and any details that have come up in previous calls. Again, this is why it’s so important to record good notes after each time you encounter them.
The more you can engage with your customers and make them feel important the more connected they’ll feel to you and the more likely they are to do further business with you and to refer people to you. So, in this third call, you call them up, you make pleasant conversation about what’s going on in their lives, and then you might have a conversation like:
You: “Well, I was calling to see if there's anything I can help you out with right now, any gift-giving items, any special things I can do for you?”
You can also attach it to an upcoming celebration or event.
“Wedding season is coming up. Is there any way I can help you with that?”
“Mothers day is right around the corner, can I help you out with any of the specials ladies in your life, including yourself?”
That’s it. These calls don't take much more than about two minutes. The power is in having a systematic approach so that the calls are not random, you’re contacting people on a regular basis and you are positioned to have a stronger business and a more professional reputation.
After this third call, especially if your product line is something consumable like food, nutrition products or skincare, you will want to stick to a check-in call just like this one every two months. If your product is something more like jewelry, clothing or home decor, you can probably stick to a quarterly call to each customer after you’ve completed the initial 2+2+2 calls.
Tip: In The Power Hour, you’ll learn more about a good tracking system for your calls, but one method that I’ve found to be so successful for people, even in this high-tech age, is to just have an old-fashioned paper system, where you just have a small index card for each customer that lists what they ordered and store that card in a card file with tabs for the months of the year. So, when you call the customer in February for that third check-in call, you just move the card to April. When April comes and you call again, afterwards you move that customer’s card to June, and so on. Low-tech, but reliable and simple, so you’re more likely to do it.
Even better, if all the details of what they've ordered is easily accessible on your computer, each data card will just have that customer’s name and phone number on it. Then you can pull up the order details on the computer when you pull out the card to make the call.
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How to Create a Follow-Up System[/headline]
Now you have the words to use for customer care, but how do you implement it? In this video, Lydia Martin shares various tracking options. Whether you use a paper or digital method, developing a system is key. Listen as Lydia shares ideas on accessing customer information and tips on how to add calls to your schedule.
How has customer care impacted your business? Or, what systems or digital tools do you use for follow up? Comment below and let us know. The key is finding a system that works for you.