How to carry out the correct post-sale management in your construction company?

At present, despite the importance of achieving lasting relationships with loyal customers, many companies in the construction industry still focus their efforts and time on generating strategies to attract new customers. However, those customers who have been around for the long period of a construction project deserve to be rewarded for that loyalty, since a customer who has a good shopping experience will buy something from you again.

<<< Construction industry: how to coordinate the technical team and work >>>

The digital age has brought down traditional business structures that no longer have a direction to follow. At a time when people are at the center, prioritizing customer experience and valuing the fact of choosing us as a brand, the focus must be directed to those who generate profits with their purchase.

It is precisely in this situation where post-sale management in your construction company is important for the profitable benefits that your company acquires if you carry it out properly. In this article, we tell you how to develop it.

What is post-sale management?

Post-sale management is the customer service sector that includes all the strategies to improve the experience after the purchase and maintain long-term relationships, seeking to satisfy customers' needs and expectations. Sometimes, it is mistakenly believed that the final objective is achieved with the expected closing of sales, but this is not the case. It is just the beginning of the commercial relationship with the customer.

The post-sale service is a way to build customer loyalty, but certain actions are required to make this bond strong since it is increasingly difficult to retain them due to the access to the information they have. Therefore, the sales representative has to be more than ever intuitive and effective with the sales practices, firstly, to attract them to their sales funnel, and after the purchase, so that they continue to interact.

Building customer loyalty through a post-sale service allows you to make a great difference in other companies. Most of the time, post-sale actions are responsible for making the company be remembered. The more remembered your company is, the more recurring your customers' purchases will be.

In addition, closed sales will even increase in general, which will allow you to invest in new resources and supplies to develop new products or infrastructure, in the case of the construction industry. Unlike the potential customer, the loyal customer no longer needs to go through the entire buyer's journey to buy something again, because they already recognize the value of your service.

<<<Purchasing planning in the construction industry>>>

How to carry out post-sale management in your construction company efficiently?

Achieving optimal post-sale management in your construction company will allow you to have more long-term projects and more customers who recommend your service because they will trust that you will provide new customers with the same efficiency and quality of service that you provided to them during the commercial process. Next, we share the main aspects of well-done after-sales management.

1. Warranty period.

Maintain contact with the customer and follow up on the finished work. After completing a construction project, the finished work enters a warranty period (the time depends on the agreements in the contract), in which the construction company must solve any damage that appears as long as it is part of the scope of the project.

2. Risk preventionist.

Even before the work is finished, some safety measures can be implemented to facilitate post-sale service and prevent serious building errors, for example, hiring the services of a risk prevention specialist.

The risk prevention officer is assigned to each workgroup when the activities to be carried out are of high risk. In these cases, the preventionist must prepare the management documentation for the work to be carried out and train the personnel on the risks and dangers in the workplace to take preventive measures, minimizing the probability of accidents.

3. Have a head of after-sales service.

Hire an area manager, who will have the function of being the link between the construction company, customers, and suppliers. The head of the post-sale service must have access to the information of each executed project. In other words, this person must stock up with a backup of plans, work budgets, and subcontract information to speed up a quick filter according to need.

If a complaint from a customer to the construction company is unavoidable, the after-sales department will take care of receiving the complaint. In response, the department will schedule a technical visit to corroborate the description of the problem within a maximum period of 72 hours. There they generate a service file for the customer to guarantee the attention of the complaint.

After the technical visit, the causes of the problem are determined, which may be: due to a bad process in the construction of the work, poor operation by the customer, or lack of maintenance. For the first case, the guarantee does comply because it is the responsibility of the construction company.

For the second and third cases, the guarantee does not apply because it is the customer's responsibility. You must identify in the first case if the specialty was executed with the construction company's personnel or was subcontracted and the corresponding attention is coordinated. In all cases, at the end of customer service, a certificate of conformity of the service is signed.

4. Have a specialist technician.

It is also recommended in post-sale management in your construction company to have a specialized technician, whose function will be to visit the places where a problem has been reported and evaluate its circumstance. On the other hand, it would be extremely important to acquire logistical support to simplify the trips made by the technician.

5. Post sale cost information.  

Try to have access to post-sale cost information to identify how much has been spent by specialty and have as a reference which is the most incident. At the same time, you must have access to the costs that are generated progressively and schedule monthly meetings with the operations and quality areas to provide feedback on the complaints handled during that month.

<<<10 things not to do in the construction industry>>>

In summary, to have effective post-sale management in your construction company, you must ensure that your customers have the answers to all their possible complaints, even if they are simply doubts.