Customer service can be easy to dismiss as nice but unimportant. As long as the work is done safely, correctly and it’s all compliant, everything else is secondary, right?
Well, maybe not so right.
While the work absolutely has to be done safely, correctly and compliantly that’s a pre-requisite. An absolute expectation.
Everything else – how quickly you return their call, whether your team turns up when expected, how clearly and transparently changes are explained, what happens around their home or workplace while the job is underway, and whether anyone follows up afterwards – makes the difference between a poor experience and a great one. And can determine whether you get the next job or not, and whether that customer recommends you to another.
And it’s not just us saying it. Australian research shows those experiences have a direct bearing on whether customers come back, recommend the business and help build its reputation. Or whether they disappear, never to be heard of again.
Key takeaways for electrical contractors
- Excellent customer service can influence whether customers return, recommend your business or choose another contractor.
- Communication, punctuality, transparency, property care and follow-up all contribute to the customer experience.
- Australian research cited in this article shows service is a significant driver of loyalty, repeat purchasing and recommendations.
- Customer service standards should be written down, included in inductions and reinforced across the team.
- Measuring response times, punctuality, callbacks, complaints, repeat work and customer feedback can help identify where service needs to improve.
Great service can be a source of repeat work
The 2025 Thryv Business Index and Consumer Report surveyed 953 Australian consumers as part of a wider Australia/New Zealand study. Of course, this isn’t confined to the electrical industry, but it’s your customers, all the same.
It found that 72% of Australian consumers identified excellent service as a driver of loyalty – ahead of discounts and loyalty programs.
And, when consumers were asked what would influence them to return to a small business, 69% nominated customer service, alongside product quality and price.
PwC Australia’s 2025 Customer Sentiment Survey, meanwhile, backs this up. Based on research involving 1,600 Australians across eight consumer industries, it found that almost 88% of customers were more likely to repurchase after good service, while almost 69% would consider switching after a bad experience.
So regardless of how good your work is, your service matters – because it sticks in your mind. We all know this to be true as consumers in our own right – if you don’t get good service in a restaurant you’ll be left with a bad taste in your mouth, regardless of how good the food is…
The next job could be a call six months later for an EV charger, air-conditioning circuit, renovation or fault finding.
The impression left on today’s relatively small job will influence whether or not you are the one to get that call.
Every happy customer is an advocate for your business
Great customer service also comes with another exceptionally valuable knock-on effect: recommendations.
The PwC research found 74% of consumers trust word of mouth, while Thryv found that 71% of Australians check online reviews before buying from a small business – yet just 38% of Australian small businesses in the survey said they always encourage customers to leave reviews.
Missed opportunity, right there.
For you, therefore, the customer standing at the door at the end of a job is not just the person you’re sending the invoice to – the experience you have given them will determine whether they recommend you to a friend, leave a review online or whether they call you for the next job.
Or they give that new bunch in town a go.
So what does great service actually look like?
Great service doesn’t need to involve grand gestures or anything over the top. In reality it’s pretty straightforward – it’s all about creating confidence and certainty.
Before the job: Confirm the time, give a realistic arrival window and explain anything they need to know – for example, access. If an earlier job runs over, tell them before the promised arrival time – don’t leave them waiting.
On arrival: Behaviour matter: introduce yourself, confirm what work’s going to be done, and clarify any uncertainty before starting. In someone’s home, ask before moving stuff or accessing additional areas, and treat the property as you would expect someone to treat your place.
When something changes: Communicate before acting, if at all possible. Our type of work often uncovers conditions that couldn’t reasonably have been identified beforehand. The issue that often arises isn’t as much about the scope of work changing, more that the customer gets a bigger invoice without much of a heads up.
When the job’s done: Explain the work that’s been completed in simple language, provide the paperwork, clean the work area and let the customer know what they should do if they have a question afterwards.
Consistency across those moments is key. Thryv’s Australian consumer research identified consistency as a driver of loyalty for 53% of respondents.
Turn exceeding expectations into your standard
The problem for a growing contracting business is to get your standards embedded into every one, every day. And it’s not as simple as saying ‘give good customer service’.
Spell out how it actually looks all the way through the customer journey.
For example, how quickly should new enquiries be acknowledged? How are booking and arrival times confirmed? What should employees do when they are delayed? How are variations explained and approved? How are customers’ premises looked after? How do you behave on-site? (Ditch the energy drinks, please!) What information is provided at handover; and how complaints or callbacks are escalated?
Those standards should be written down, included in inductions and reinforced at toolbox meetings. An apprentice or new employee should not have to guess what ‘professional’ means in your business.
Don’t just say it – measure it!
Writing expectations down achieves little unless they are measured.
Start with a small number of indicators that relate directly to the customer experience – response times, punctuality, callbacks, complaints, repeat work and customer feedback.
Review comments are useful too, because patterns around communication, cleanliness or reliability can highlight operational problems that a star rating alone will not.
Business.gov.au recommends continually evaluating customer service, recording feedback and observing interactions between staff and customers.
Where an individual’s performance needs improving, Fair Work Ombudsman guidance recommends discussing and recording performance expectations, monitoring performance, providing regular and timely feedback, identifying training needs and reviewing progress against agreed goals.
That creates a much stronger conversation than simply telling someone to ‘be better with customers’.
The magic of good service? It’s repeatable
The objective is not to turn electricians into scripted customer-service robots. Customers are hiring a contractor because they need competent electrical work.
But technical competence and customer experience are not competing priorities, and the strongest businesses make professionalism visible in both.
Answer when you say you will. Arrive when you say you will, or communicate when you can’t. Explain what’s happening. Respect the customer’s property, avoid unexpected surprises, fix problems properly, and follow up.
None of those actions are complicated. The difficult part is making sure they happen on the first job of the week, the last job on Friday and every job carried out by every member of the team in between.
That’s when customer service stops being dependent on individual personality and becomes part of the way the contracting business operates – helping turn completed jobs into repeat customers, recommendations and a stronger local reputation.
Frequently asked questions about customer service for electricians
Why does customer service matter if the electrical work is completed correctly?
Safe, correct and compliant work is a prerequisite. The wider customer experience – including communication, punctuality, transparency, property care and follow-up – can influence whether customers return, recommend the contractor or use another business next time.
What are the most important parts of customer service for an electrician?
The article identifies several key moments: responding to enquiries, confirming arrival times, communicating delays, behaving professionally on-site, explaining changes before acting, caring for the customer’s premises, providing a clear handover and following up afterwards.
Can good customer service help electricians win repeat work?
Australian consumer research cited in the article shows customer service is an important influence on loyalty and repeat purchasing. The impression left on one job may affect whether a customer calls the same contractor for future electrical work.
Should customer service standards be written down?
Yes. For a growing contracting business, standards should spell out what good service looks like across the customer journey. They should be written down, included in inductions and reinforced at toolbox meetings so employees do not have to guess what “professional” means.
How can an electrical business measure customer service?
The article recommends starting with indicators directly related to customer experience, such as response times, punctuality, callbacks, complaints, repeat work and customer feedback. Review comments can also reveal patterns around communication, cleanliness or reliability.
What electrical contractors should remember
Great customer service is not separate from professional electrical work.
Safe, correct and compliant work remains the starting point. What customers remember as well is whether you answered when you said you would, arrived when expected or communicated when you couldn’t, explained what was happening, respected their property, avoided unexpected surprises, fixed problems properly and followed up.
The challenge is making those behaviours repeatable across every job and every employee.
When that happens, customer service becomes part of the way the contracting business operates – helping completed jobs turn into repeat customers, recommendations and a stronger local reputation.
