Sunburst Electric brand contact planning and management

Sunburst Electric is an electrical contracting franchise that originates from the United States of America where it is known as Mr.Electric and was first introduced to South Africa in 2015.  Sunburst Electric and their Service Professionals (electricians) are dedicated to providing world class customer service through their systems and processes and strive on getting the job done right the first time.

When you first come into contact with Sunburst Electric on their website, you are offered multiple ways in which you can request a service, you can leave an inquiry online, call the national call center or send through a WhatsApp, this suits almost everybody’s needs that is looking for an electrician.

When you get through to the call centre, you are greeted with “It’s a great day at Sunburst Electric, this is “x” speaking, how may we help you”, it doesn’t matter who answers the phone, it is always done the same way, providing consistency to customers and ensuring all customers receive the same service.

Once a Service Professional (electrician) is booked for the job, there are a series of steps that happen to enlighten the customer, keep them engaged with the brand, and to help them trust the brand. A confirmation email is sent of the booking, customer WhatsApp groups are created, the customer receives a reminder notification of the job they have scheduled. This already allows the customer to build a relationship with the brand before they have ever had human contact, based on the experiences before the Service Professional has arrived they can already determine the level of service they will receive from the brand going forward.

Sunburst Electric aims to create an effortless sales process with their electricians and their customers. Service Professionals all are equipped with ipads that allow them to quote and easily display quotes to customers to give them upfront, on time pricing, once again, allowing the customer to engage with the brand right there and then and make a decision on the spot if they would like to go ahead with the work. Training is given to all Service Professionals as well as call center agents once a week, where they do role play and go through their different steps of the CUSTOMER process and how to engage with customers. For Sunburst Electric it is more than just fixing an electrical problem, but also about building a relationship with their customers.

 

To keep their customers loyal to a certain extent, they also provide memberships to Sunburst Electric that allows the customer to receive VIP treatment.

 

 

 

Below we will look at some of the brand contact points of Sunburst Electric:

• • “Have all product points of contact been identified?” In the Case of Sunburst Electric, this would be from the website to the time the van pulls into the driveway, a bright yellow van full of branding and the way the prices are given to customers in a visually interactive way on ipads in the customer’s home. The customer receives an email and WhatsApp communication when the Service Professional in en route to the customers home, they receive a picture of the Service Professional, his license number and a short biography of who will be entering their home. 

 

• • “Have all service points of contact been identified?” For Sunburst Electric this would be the well groomed and branded Service Professionals that come to the customer’s homes, with neatly branded uniforms, branded business cards in a branded vehicle.  

 

• • “Have all planned points of contact been identified?” Sunburst Electric aims to provide world-class expert electrical service to every customer they serve, this is proven through their Social Media campaigns as well as partnerships with other service providers in the contracting industry that strive to provide world class customer service.

 

 

 

 

• • “Have all unplanned points of contact been identified?” Sunburst Electric has a very positive word of mouth, at the end of jobs, Service Professionals are encouraged to ask their customers for a referral. The customer is also encouraged to leave a rating on either Facebook or Google My Business. Word of mouth is the second highest source of turnover for Sunburst Electric.

Sunburst Electric company values are to live R.I.C.H, This stands for Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus and Having Fun in the process, this is demonstrated through the training that is done at a Head Office level through all staff involved in Sunburst Electric and is shown to the customer by respecting the customer, having integrity with their dealings, focusing on the customer and ensuring they have fun in the process, creating a happier work environment. 

Sunburst Electric appears to be very involved from an internal to an external extent on training all staff on the purpose of customer relationship building and following the processes and systems within the brand. Sunburst Electric is a franchise and has multiple forms on monitoring each franchisee to make sure that everyone is following the brand promise and code of values. There is a company Intranet site in place, where positive posts are done and video training as well as training hosted at their Head Offices once every quarter. I think they have done very well at identifying a gap in the market and making sure that all the teams strive for the same goal, they do this through constant engagement and training.