3 great ways electricians can gain the confidence of new user bases

In the electrician world, acquiring the confidence of an untapped user base in need of your expertise can be tricky.

Separate to your desire to have representatives do a great job; if you do not present yourself to these potential purchasers in a meaningful way, success will never be in arms reach.

Within this mind-shifting piece, we get under the bonnet and open up the mechanics behind:

• showcasing the stories of those who speak highly of your offering
• demonstrating how you successfully deliver on buyer expectation
• notifying prospects of the skills your experts possess to do the job

The most touching of accounts are those steeped in the truth. Prospective buyers want to connect with your existing users' emotions to help their decision-making. It's a great way to hold a viewer's attention whilst guiding them through the stages of a success story. The aim should be to continually connect to different points raised, like ticking off a checklist of criteria that needs to be met.

When gathering the details about why you've won a customer's favour, be thorough in your investigations. Probe for information, and don't allow one-word answers and simple sentences to be the order of the day. Remember that you are referencing them because you can win hundreds, if not thousands, of undecided buyers of a similar ilk. Even if it takes offering an incentive for their time and input, go full force ahead, knowing that what you obtain is the proof point to bolster your provisions.

The area of your website that you'd ideally want to use for promoting this is your testimonials section. With the proper framework in place, you'll have an organised engine that stores each entry's details and allows their words to be pulled into the various applicable templates and pages where you'd like them visible. Some key things to look for as far as fields you should have to input data include a space for adding:

• a full review as well as a shortened version
• star ratings to score the service received
• an image area for adding headshots of the contributor,
• a name, job role (if applicable) and company (if applicable)

If you want to take your testimonials into overdrive, please ensure your content management system (CMS) also has an area for uploading a video supporting the given accolades.

The term 'show and prove' will remain part of the human psyche for the remainder of our existence. It's not enough to claim you can do anything without an accompanying on the spot performance in some societies. As an electrician, whenever you can fulfil a task, you should have a well-defined pitch that engages the requester, with clean imagery that shows you can make dreams a reality. If you feel that you don't have enough material to support this notion, this is an immediate indicator on what you need to be working on right away. What you'll need to embark on is an information-gathering task whereby you store up as much collateral as possible which get utilised in different ways down the line.

Extending on this, when it comes to project work, you want to be regimental in your approach, creating case studies. The worst thing is when you have to backtrack on completed works trying to remember the basis on which the activity came about, the solution you applied and the eventual outcomes. Now, you may have to do this at the moment to make up for a backlog, but in the future, this should be part of your sign-off procedures that ensure your workers get paid.

Where case studies, best sit are on your website. What we recommend you do as a trade-based business is spin this on its head, and look at how you gather the its details in advance. It means removing all guesswork and the hours you could spend revisiting completed activities. Whether it be a sign-off sheet, web-based form or app, what you should have laid out are a set of instructions for your appointed workman to follow whilst carrying out their work. It shouldn't only involve their input on the day, but also have initial info filled out by your administrators, namely:

• project name
• client name
• client logo (if applicable)
• project description
• location
• budget
• start/end date

It would help if you also embarked on training your staff around taking photos of their work. The reason is that at best you want them to convey the before, during and after. Give guidance around taking a good snap, the best settings to use on their device and a process to share as they go along so you can advise if needed (and before it's too late).

With all this in play, some useful details of each phase, the collecting of a client testimonial and a project URL (should the work also be displayed elsewhere online), will ensure you have the richest repository of work moving forward.

What carries a business forward is its workers. A face that makes others smile every day is worth its weight in gold. The aim should be to develop a culture which is as bountiful in its human capital as it is in its ability to get the job done. Strive to have a set up whereby your recipients note the competencies of your representatives. It helps a lot when they go on to champion why others should use you, as they'll mention your workers' name accompanied by their traits.

Everyone likes a friendly space, so the message of professionalism, care, and commitment should instil confidence in your buyers. Naturally, you may have some more vocal workers than others, those who are helpful as opposed to others who want to get their head down. Even if this is the case, communication is crucial, and the common thread that should bind them together is satisfying your corporate vision.

It's worthwhile noting this because having electrical works conducted is an intimate task. So, even if the owner or manager is not present in the property when your labouring, realise you are still speaking to them.

You can create a useful touchpoint in sharing the team member pages from your website, including links to those present on a site in all correspondence your share. The makeup of a helpful staff member page should incorporate:

• a team member's name
• a team member's role
• an impactful bio
• a headshot image
• contact details (which you can opt not to make public)
• social info (which you can opt not to make public)
• associated company department
• qualifications and awards
• skills (to which you can attribute a score)

One of your aims ongoing aims should be building up a horde of ambassadors who make you the centre of their conversation. If you recognise the advantages of having a swarm of advocates who you don't have to employ, then latch on to this knowledge for dear life.

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