Boiler Service Reminder Letters

[Haskell]

Hi,

My annual boiler service reminder letters seem to be getting worse and worse take-up rates.

I don't know if it is because of the recession or what it is!

My question is how many others send boiler servicing reminder letters and what percentage of take-up rate (bookings for a boiler service) do you normally receive??

I just want to compare mine to the industry standard.

 

[ecowarm]

Others like BG seem to get customers addresses from Gas safe but GS dont give out details?

 

[ecowarm]

oh and welcome to the forum

 

[Haskell]

Others like BG seem to get customers addresses from Gas safe but GS dont give out details?

I am talking about my own customers. Ie I did the original installation and after a year (or two) I send out a reminder letter to get it serviced.

I used to have quite a good take-up for this but now it seems to be getting less and less.

I would really like to know what the industry standard is so I could compare my own.

P.S. Thanks for the welcome!

 

[doitmyself]

I am talking about my own customers. Ie I did the original installation and after a year (or two) I send out a reminder letter to get it serviced.

DO you remind your customers that the manufacturer's warranty contains a condition that the boiler has to be serviced annually?

 

[Haskell]

Yes, that is in the letters.

What sort of take-up do you get if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

 

[Roger Welton]

I tend to phone around, and get about a 75% hit rate, though it is a pain, I keep meaning to get some service reminder cards made up and post instead, so would also be interested to hear if the hit rate is lower.

 

[cdodds2004]

my hit rate on reminders is 50% i would say, then another 25% ring up maybe withing the next year etc, total about 75% this does include some breakdowns then they say i was meaning to get it serviced again!

i send a gentle reminder letter, then i have a generic leaflet stating why a service/landlords is important

 

[tamz]

It is all down to the lack of cash. People just don't have the money to spend and if the boiler is working then it is fine by them. I was speaking to the local mechanic last week and he was on about the same thing with car servicing. It is well down from the norm.
You could try fitting boilers or timers that flash up service warnings. A bit like the annoying light on your dash :lol:
Just a sign of the times i'm afraid.

 

[Haskell]

I'd be interested to know how many ring around as opposed to sending letters also???

 

[thereisawizza]

I used to just send out letters but now phoning as well to prevent losing custards!

 

[grahamgas]

I send out letters,as alot of my customers like that impersonal touch.
I do phone some, also email some.
I would say hit rate is as follows:
Appliances still under manufacturers warranty: 100%
Appliances out of warranty 75%
Appliances that I never fitted, but have serviced in the past 50%
All other 50%

I have found the hit rate this year has gone up, as I am now able to take debit and credit cards, and obviously advertise the fact.

The thing that has dropped off is servicing and cp12s for letting agents. I am sure they are always phoning round for best deal.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Nope have never sent out letters looks like chasing work to me ,if your good enough and they were happy with you previous then i believe you shouldn't have to send letters out .

 

[peteheat]

Nope have never sent out letters looks like chasing work to me ,if your good enough and they were happy with you previous then i believe you shouldn't have to send letters out .

Me too, however it appears that some of the younger customers want their hands held and the big service providers linked in with the gas companies can bill service "on the bill" stage payments etc.

Maybe I'm just getting too old to be baby sitting, they want it serviced they can call, the thoughts of sending letters does not appeal to me as that work is usually done after a days work.

 

[Haskell]

Nope have never sent out letters looks like chasing work to me ,if your good enough and they were happy with you previous then i believe you shouldn't have to send letters out .

You are missing out on a regular income by not doing it. You are not chasing work you are just reminding them their boiler needs to be serviced annually. And it's a lot cheaper (a letter or phonecall!) than other advertising!

 

[doitmyself]

You are not chasing work you are just reminding them their boiler needs to be serviced annually.

I agree. The garage phones me a month before the annual service is due, which makes sure I can have a courtesy car, and the MOT test centre sends me a reminder each year.

It's just good customer relations.

 

[MickBrown]

I suppose it does not help when GROUPON have been listing boiler services for £34. There have been 2 offers in the last 6 months, one from a local company to me and one from further south although saying they cover my area. I assume they hope that next year you will use them again, however the discount is listed as £116 making it £150 for a normal service so maybe not many renewals.

 

[glenno1]

What you could do is leave a purpose made sticker on the casing of the boiler that has the date of their next service and your phone number,hope this helps

 

[Heating-eng]

Nope have never sent out letters looks like chasing work to me ,if your good enough and they were happy with you previous then i believe you shouldn't have to send letters out .

Customers will just forget that it needs doing,

 

[Heating-eng]

What you could do is leave a purpose made sticker on the casing of the boiler that has the date of their next service and your phone number,hope this helps

Thats a great idea

 

[Barry98]

mines prob 8/10

 

[peteheat]

Hi,

In the past I have used stickers, letters, cold calling and probably the most successful was a desk top calendar for business customers and a simple wall hung one for private customers.

You may have heard the old saying "we can be victims of our own success"? well in a way that happened to me because as the years passed by and the business model changed I stopped doing what led to the early success.

If my family were interested in this I would certainly be looking at ways to grow the business most of which would come from my past experience of what worked.

Who knows maybe a young person with a bit of enthusiam might approach to buy me out over a long term?

Until then (if ever) semi retirement suits me just fine, so don't take what I post on this matter as negative, when growing a business you can never stop changing your methods of both getting new customers and possibly more important keeping the ones you have.

As an exercise I suggest to every young person that they watch what they spend on various forms of advertising / marketing over a year, then divide the number of calls / enquiries you receive into the final number, now you know how much it costs to get that enquiry, then divide into that the number of jobs you got and you know how much each each customer costed you.

You might be surprised enough to ensure the phone is not left ring until the answering machine picks up, or email is left without a reply for more than a day.

Have fun,

Pete.

 

[dontknowitall]

I like the calendar idea. Open the calendar before handing it over and write "Boiler Service!!" in the appropriate date.

Then you should reach the 8/10 target (assuming 1 in 5 chucks out the calendar as yet another piece of rubbish coming through the post!)

 

[grahamgas]

What you could do is leave a purpose made sticker on the casing of the boiler that has the date of their next service and your phone number,hope this helps

I do this as well as trying to fit controls, that flash up on service due date with my phone number

 

[Barry98]

got to be careful boys and girls , customer data storing big bag of worms