Customer profiles?

[Island Lawn]

How detailed is the info ya'll keep on your customers?

I seem to remember an old post about author, Harvey McKay and his system of a customer database sort of thing...

I have trouble just remembering their names!

[1MajorTom]

For our customers, we have their name, address, and telephone number.

We know exactly how many cuttings, and additional work they requested like hedges, aerating etc from the previous years.

We know exactly how much they spent with us from year to year, and our goal is to increase their spending each year.

IF we can find out their birthdays, we add that to their info, and send them a card for their birthday.

We keep things as simple as possible while still making money.

[Stonehenge]

I guess it depends on what kinds of services you offer and how much your customers usually spend on them. If the spend $500 on average, you'd be spending a lot of time gathering info that would return you little. If they spent $.5M on you, then you'd do well to know what kind of food their dog eats. Well, not really, but you get the idea.

But I don't know if I'd start asking for all kinds of personal info on the first meeting - customer might think your intentions are less than honorable.

Beyond that, we keep the usual customer info like 1MT on file.

[Skookum]

I keep a file in a hanging file cabinet for each account with all info like sitemaps, qoutes, bids, property pictures etc.

I also keep a notes page for each customer in Quickbooks. Since it is right there with the customer list it works great, address, phone, contacts, I list prices for services, etc. When making up invoices they are right there at your finger tips already.

[kutnkru]

We have it broken down into several categories and track their services accordingly.

CUSTOMER INFO --- BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES/PERSONAL
LAWN MAINTENANCE --- IPM --- RENOVATIONS
ORNAMENTAL BED MAINTENANCE --- ARBORICULTURE
LANDSCAPING --- HARDSCAPING

Kris

[Mike Nelson]

You should have always have info on your clients.Most people concentrate on getting new customers and don't spend enough time asking the old customers what they could do for them.They assume they need more customers.The fact is,it is easier to keep the old customer happy,than trying to find a new one.
Just my 2 cents

[lawnman_scott]

if u have employees going to service the customer without u being there also i think its a bit more important to know if thier dog is usually out in the back yard so they remember to shut the gate. happened to me once the customers dog was gone for 3 days before being found at the pound. i would have shot me, but he didnt evan cancel service so we must be doing something right. i dont know his birthday though lol