service, seasonalI run a small snow plowing business in a rural area. We’re close on the threshold between not getting enough snow to warrant the business, and having enough snow that I’d need to expand. For the time being, I’m pretty comfortable with my albeit small fleet of two trucks.
But when it comes to particularly stormy years, or when snow is completely unexpected and comes anyway, how can I manage the expectations of eager customers? This is really just a side-business for me, so I’m not super keen on buying yet another truck to handle these rare occurrences. I don’t generally have issues with them getting mad at me, but I always feel bad when they want to get driveways and parking lots clear and my trucks can only move so fast.
What options might I have to manage these expectations and help keep everyone on the same page? How can I convey to them the difficulty of my job and that not every lot can be my very top priority at any given time, while still maintaining a good level of satisfaction?
Again, this is really just an issue in extreme cases where more snow falls than I can handle. It’s not a problem most of the time, but when it does happen, it can be frustrating for all involved.
This could be a communications challenge, or it could be a business opportunity.
If it’s a communications challenge, then your first job is to use the experience you have to describe plausible scenarios and their impact on customers. Perhaps there’s one key variable such as inches of snowfall, or perhaps there are two or three. The thing customers experience is probably pretty simple - “hours to fixed” maybe. So if you have this mapped out, part of your service delivery is about setting customer expectations and managing the flow of communications. “We’ve had 9 inches of snow, so we’ll be getting everyone sorted in two days. On our plan, we’ll be with you late tomorrow morning; we’ll keep you updated.”
Yes, people will grumble and want to be at the head of a queue. But if you follow crisis management ideas, giving people confidence that you have a clear plan you’re executing helps them understand that you may not be able to shift things for them without causing unseen complications.
But maybe it’s a business opportunity. When you have a lot of snow, you do have real choices about priorities, that will play out very differently as you do your job. So maybe there’s room for one or more “priority” levels. If you’ve done your basic mapping, and you know (say) that 8-12 inches of snow means two days to done, you could absolutely offer a priority service at a significant premium that goes with a one day service target in this context.
While you should always aim to price on value, you do need to price cognizant of costs. If this were a realistic scenario, you have some additional time owing to the inefficiency of dealing with two priority levels, so there is a real cost. And if everyone bought in to the priority service, you would need another plow, maybe two. Of course, if people are currently paying on demand, you have to cross another hurdle, to sign up for a service tier or to make some regular payment.
The great news is that it is going to cost you nothing to create viable service levels. In the worst case, where nobody goes for one of your premium tiers, you have strengthened your hand for the big snowfall day. “That’s right, Mr Donnington. Customers who chose Sureclear, we’re serving today. But here’s what I could offer you…”
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.