Connect With Chaz You close the deal. Your team is high-fiving. You are ready to deliver. Meanwhile, your new customer is sitting at home in an emotional hole, doubting the decision they just made, wondering if they chose the right company, and the only sound filling that doubt is their own voice. That gap between when a customer buys and when you actually deliver is one of the most expensive moments in any contractor's business. Most companies never think about it. Joey Coleman has spent 20 years teaching companies like Zappos, Whirlpool, Hyatt, and NASA how to fix it. In this conversation with Chaz Wolfe, Joey breaks down the six communication tools available to every business owner, all eight phases of the customer journey from first impression to raving advocate, and why most companies are only getting three or four of those phases right. This is Part 1. Part 2 applies the same framework to employee retention. Key Takeaways: Every business interaction is H2H, human to human. Not B2B or B2C. When you remember the person on the other side is a human with feelings, motivations, and fears, every interaction changes.The six communication tools available to you: in-person, email, phone, physical mail, video, and gifts. Each one serves a different purpose at a different phase of the relationship. Deploying the right tool at the right moment is what separates average companies from memorable ones.Phase 1, Assess: Your prospect is already evaluating you before any conversation. Your reviews, your social media, your website, your LinkedIn, all of it is being read before they ever raise their hand.Phase 2, Admit: The moment they sign and hand over their money, the chemistry in their brain changes. Dopamine floods in. Joy, euphoria, excitement. This window is short. What you do in the next 24 to 48 hours either capitalizes on it or wastes it.Phase 3, Affirm: Buyer's remorse is real and scientifically documented. As dopamine recedes, fear, doubt, and uncertainty replace it. Most businesses are high-fiving when their customer is in an emotional hole. Close that gap aggressively with communication, reaffirmation, and reminders of why they made a smart decision.Phase 4, Activate: The first moment of truth. When they get the product or have the first service call. Most companies are decent at this. The problem is what happens the next day.Phase 5, Acclimate: Day two through weeks and months. Most companies over-index on day one and disappear after. This is where retention is built or destroyed.Phase 6, Accomplish: Every customer has a vision of what owning your product or using your service is going to create for them. Find out what that vision is. Track their progress. Celebrate it with them when it happens.Phase 7, Adopt: Your most loyal customers are the ones you take for granted. They are already sold. They are not listening to competitors. And yet most companies run promotions for new customers that make loyal customers feel punished for staying. Stop doing that.Phase 8, Advocate: If your growth is not driven in part by customer referrals, you do not have advocates. You have adopters at best. Advocacy is earned by getting every other phase right.Death by a thousand paper cuts is how you lose customers. Rarely is it one big moment. It is the small slight, the broken promise, the missed follow-up that stacks up over time until trust erodes completely.If you are a contractor business owner doing $1M+ and you feel stuck in the day-to-day, we built GTK for you. Through peer mastermind and 1:1 coaching, we help you: increase profitinstall real systemsbuild a team that runs the businessget your time backVisit www.gatheringthekings.com for information on how to apply. Connect with Chaz Wolfe (Host): Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn YouTube Vacation With Entrepreneurial FamiliesEntrepreneur families grow closer, dream bigger, & build legacy together. Join our Family Vacation.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show Like what you heard? Share this episode with a friend and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! Join the conversation by visiting GatheringTheKings.com and apply to connect with other high-performing entrepreneurs and their families.
