It may seem counterintuitive but offering a better warranty than your competition actually makes you money. The reason is you overcome one of the best buying objections a customer has when making a purchasing decision and it separates you from being “just like the rest” to being “above the rest.”

How you offer the warranty is different, but in all the trades I’ve worked with as a flooring business consultant it comes down to being clear on what the exact offer is and how good you are at tracking the source of callbacks.

Callbacks are why we as owners are hesitant to make longer warranties on the repairs and replacement work we do. Truth is, you need know your callback rate, such as five calls out of a 100 calls done would come back for a sales, operational or technical reason. That’s why you need the CSR to use a Callback form and the Service Manager needs to verify if it’s a legit callback or not.

Once you know your callback rate and you know how to work with a budget, you can adjust your selling price to cover the cost and give a bigger warranty than most if not all of your competition.

Now, if you want to get really good, you drive the callback rate down with excellent sales, operational and technical training. I do this with my clients with Operations Manuals, written training curriculum, a training center and a sales training curriculum. The longer the training is in place the more dramatic the drop in callback rate and the higher the customer satisfaction ratings climb.

Face it … customers need a nudge to say yes to the work you’re proposing and the way to move them along in the buying process is with a peace-of-mind warranty. Do this and watch your sales go up!

Note: If you’d like a copy of the CSR Callback Form, e-mail me at al@appleseedbusiness.com and I’ll be happy to send it along.