Tell Your Clients Where to Go!

In my last article I wrote about how I couldn’t help one of my clients because I couldn’t open up a certain laptop model. In this article I am going to talk about the next step which is telling them where they can find the right help; and even make a little bit on the side by doing so!

Lets go over a few options of what you can do to help your clients:

Have Relationships with Other Suppliers and Pass the Client onto Them
Relationships with other businesses is something many businesses overlook because of the fear of competition. Having business relationships can boost both businesses to areas that would have taken a lot longer to get on their own. The two businesses need to be complementary to each other and not competitive. For example, a electrician who spends a lot of time laying network and phone cables would be complimentary to a computer repair business.
The electrician could give their clients your business card after he laid network cables for his clients new office and they need someone to get the network going. In return, if you are setting up a new network or troubleshooting an existing one, you could get the electrician to lay or repair the network cables.

In the situation with the client I mentioned in the last article, I eventually passed them onto a friend who specialises in repairing laptops. Hes the type that will have a handful of laptops of just about any model number floating around his workshop somewhere and a soldering iron always on the bench. While I personally do work on laptops, if its too fiddly I’ll pass them onto him.

Of course, business relationships take time as you have to earn each others trust. To test out the other business you could always try being a middle man for your client first.

Be a Middle Man
Being a middle man is basically accepting the job and getting somebody else to do the work. It has it’s good and bad points though. A good point is that your the go-to guy who gets things done and you don’t potentially lose a client sending them to someone else. The bad point is its your reputation thats on the line if the work is shoddy. I rarely be a middle man now days, but when I did I always told the client that the time it would take was double the time I actually thought the job needed. This helps you keep your promises if the other provider doesn’t keep his.
As for quoting the price, I wait until the other business has quoted me first and then I put my cut on top. Although I didn’t do any actual work, it does take me time to pickup and dropoff the laptop. Also, if I didn’t charge at least 10% on top (Australia’s GST tax), I will be taxed on what the client gave me which would make me in the negative 10% since I had to pay the other business 100%.

Don’t Know Anyone to Refer Them To?
If you don’t have any business relationships with the type of person they need, point them in the right direction. For example, if a client needed parts for a rare laptop like one the has never existed outside Asia but was brought to me here in Australia, I would say something like this:

“Sorry, but I am unable to find the parts your laptop needs and I don’t know of any businesses that could help. Your best bet is the Yellow Pages directory and look for someone who specializes in repairing laptops. They are more likely to have the parts you need, or at least have the connections to obtain them”.

Don’t Charge
Last and not least, if you didn’t provide your client any value, don’t charge. Like I mentioned in the last article; although I spent an hour trying to remove the cover from that laptop, I didn’t provide any value to the client and its not their fault I didn’t know where the last screw was. Besides, by failing and not charging for it, it actually helped boost my reputation as a good, honest technician.