Aftercare advice is important for a number of reasons.
First, it minimises the risk of something going wrong. In turn, this minimises the risk of a compensation claim being made against you. This saves you money and ensures that your liability insurance premiums will remain affordable.
Second, it’s professional to give aftercare advice. It should be part of the service that you’re delivering. It reassures your clients that you’re an expert and that means that they’ll have confidence in you and will be happy to return to you in the future. It also means that they’re more likely to recommend you to other people.
Finally, it gives you an opportunity to make contact with your previous clients and that means that you can sell those clients further services and treatments.
Minimising the risk of something going wrong
If you havepublic liability insuranceandtreatment risk coveryou’ll be insured if a compensation claim is made against you. Your insurer will defend any such claims and help you settle any claims on the best possible terms.
But this doesn’t mean that you should be complacent. Even if you’re insured there’s still a risk of loss. You might be covered for any damages awarded against you but you won’t be insured for the damage that might be done to your reputation. Bear in mind that social media makes it easy for anyone who has an issue with you to publicise their concerns.
And remember that although liability insurance covers you if you accidentally injure someone, there’s normally a “reasonable care” condition in public liability insurance policies, so you might not be covered if you’ve taken the decision not to provide aftercare advice.
There’s also the fact that if you have to make claims on your insurance, your insurance premiums will rise. You’ll also have to pay the policy excess every time you have to make a claim. Even if you are covered by insurance, making an insurance claim will cost you money.
By providing aftercare advice you minimise the risk of a compensation claim being made against you because you minimise the risk of anything going wrong. And by doing so, in the long term you will be saving money because you minimise the risk of having to make an insurance claim.
Professionalism
Providing aftercare advice is part and parcel of providing a professional service so it shouldn’t be considered an optional extra. It should be considered an integral part of the service that you provide to your clients.
By providing this advice, you are showing your clients that you know what you’re talking about. You’re demonstrating that you are a subject matter expert.
This will give your clients confidence and this means that they will use your services in the future. It also means that they will be more likely to tell their friends about you and recommend your services to them.
Staying in contact
As well as minimising the chance of something going wrong and demonstrating your professionalism, providing aftercare advice can also be a great marketing tool because it gives you the opportunity to stay in contact with your clients. This has a number of benefits.
First, it reminds your customers that you exist. That makes it more likely that the next time your customers need the services you provide, it’s you that they’ll come to. Your name will be the first name that they think of.
Second, it gives you the opportunity to offer your past customers additional services and even to tell them about any special offers that you are currently running.
Selling to your previous and existing clients is a lot easier and cheaper than trying to acquire new clients. Staying in contact with clients by providing aftercare advice to them can be highly effective when it comes to getting them to use your services again.
