We all see the adverts on television and some of them we can recite from memory, often including the tone of voice too. I’m sure many of you remember the Ronseal adverts. Y’know, the one where the man was wood staining his front door and stated that it said on the tin it would be rain proof in thirty minutes and lo and behold, thirty minutes later the door was rain proof, just in time for the rain that started. Then he said “Ronseal! – It does exactly what it says on the tin!”
From that one advert came a whole series of them and today most people can recite those adverts off while getting the accent, tone of voice and actions correct, down to the very last detail.
That is now know as The Ronseal Factor, where you deliver what you promised you would to your customers. If you say you will ring them back within thirty minutes, then you ring them back within thirty minutes.
If you say you will deliver their order by three pm on Thursday afternoon then your delivery vehicle is pulling up outside their premises by three pm on Thursday at the very latest.
If you say you will provide an after-hours service for them, then there is someone always available after-hours to help them when they need it.
The one thing that The Ronseal Factor does is seal a bond of trust between the provider and their client. They know that they can trust them to deliver as promised, that they live up to that promise.
If you don’t currently have it, how do you get it?
Put yourself in the shoes of your clients, if you were a client in your business would you like to be treated the way you treat them? Now that you have that image, how can you improve on your service?
- Be clear and consise with your clients so that they know exactly what to expect from you.
– Any new client I see is sent an email with the points discussed so that they know exactly what they agreed to, along with what they can expect from me and also what they will be expected to do too.
- Change the way you deal with your clients in your business. Stop making promises that you know you can’t keep.
- Stop using the excuse that “everybody else is doing it, so we can too” to cut back on customer service or after sales care.
- Start to do a little more than is currently expected by your clients. Show them that you can and do deliver on your promises, sometimes will an unexpected bonus too.
- If they are used to getting an order in late, make sure that it is on time and give a little bit extra as an apology for the previous order being late.
Ask your clients how you can improve your service to them and start to implement some of the changes.
There are lots of ways to get The Ronseal Factor, it is usually different from business to business. I’ve only given a few to get you thinking about them. Please share your suggestions below.
The Ronseal Factor – does your business have it?
6 responses to “Do You Have The Ronseal Factor?”
This is a wonderful post Mairead, you have made some great points and I totally agree with everything you’ve written… I love the use of the Ronseal Factor, I’ll have that in my mind for the day now 🙂
Thanks Catherine,
The title came to me when I was dealing with a customer service person that was not delivering on a promise to me and I said to the person “your company definitely does NOT have The Ronseal Factor”. Funnily enough she know exactly what I meant too.
All the points are very easy to impliment without costing much either. To my mind they should be the very basic standard in customer service.
Hi Mairead,
What a great post, and I love the analogy of the Ronseal Factor. Funny how things can grow with us over the years. The same can be said for bad sales, over promising and lack of professional service.
Thankfully, recessions seem to bring things back down to earth, and most businesses are seeing that the old way is not the new highway.
But as long as people keep sharing the message, like you have done above, things will definitely change for the better.
Business has completely changed, and as soon as existing business owners realise this, they are already making progress, and doing their organisation great justice.
Long live Ronseal 🙂
I think good customer service is more important than ever and the coining of the phrase to describe it is brilliant, I love it.
We all like to think we have the Ronseal factor but do we…..
Absolutely Lorna, it’s such a pity that so many businesses are cutting back on the very thing that keeps their customers coming back to them. The good thing is many businesses do have it and are constantly striving to improve it too. Testimonials are a great way to show that you have it, dis-satisfied customers don’t provide them! The best way to keep it is to ask your customers, but only do that if you are prepared to follow through on the responses you get.
Thankfully Elaine the recession has weeded out some of the really bad ones. Business will change with the demands of the consumer and the dinosaurs who refuse to change will go extinct, only those who adapt and evolve will survive. Ronseal hit a winner with that slogan, luckily they live up to it and that is why it stuck.