Unsolicited performance reviews

[mark123]

I got a couple of performance reviews this week.

The first was from a customer that I picked up earlier this year. She used to have a lady that cut her grass and she was extremely happy with her service but the lady got out of the business and suggested a different service that was awful. When I did the estimate I got the full story and I was sure that when I got the job I was going to be perpetually compared to the lady that used to cut the grass. Strangely enough the customer was home during working hours and came out to talk to me and told me she was very happy with my service and even told the lady that used to do her grass that she should suggest me to her other customers instead of the other guy. I gave her a bunch of cards to hand out to her friends.

The second. I was on a lawn today at a place where I used to live directly across the street from the property. My old neighbor that I grew up with her kids came over and stopped me and told me how nice of a job I've been doing. We caught up a bit and had a nice 5 minute chat. I gave her a bunch of cards to hand out to her friends. The lady that owns the property gave me a voluntary raise ($3 per cut) without me asking after the second visit so I know she wants me to stick around.

That was all pretty nice and definitely made up for the troubles I had this week. :)

[Steve]

That is very interesting!

The lady that owns the property gave me a voluntary raise ($3 per cut) without me asking

Does it make you wonder if you are not charging enough or what is your view on that?

Did you ever consider using any sort of customer survey to get feedback from your current customers on the work you are doing or is that not really important?

[jasonw]

I kinda sorta do a survey but in person. After the first cut for a new customer I always wait until they pay there bill then ask if they were happy with the service they got and or if there was anything they would like to see done differently next time. Thus far I have only one complaint and that was towards the end of the day. It was the big job, remember animal bushes? I just could not get it done that day so I came back another day. This particular customer wants to be home when work is done so it was 2-3 days before it was finished. They were disappointed I had to call it quits the first day but all in all when the job was done they were very happy, paid with no question and called me back to do it all again this next week. An automatic raise like that would be awesome but its kind of sad to think someone got burned bad enough to have to offer more money to keep someone good around. As long as they agree to the terms I place on the bid I am happy with no raises. If I want to make more money I will bid higher from then on.

[mark123]

Does it make you wonder if you are not charging enough or what is your view on that?
That is something to consider. A few of my other customers always round up to the next $10 when I send them an invoice.

Did you ever consider using any sort of customer survey to get feedback from your current customers on the work you are doing or is that not really important? I was going to solicit testimonials with my next billing. A survey may also be a good idea.