Keeping your clients happy as a private investigator or process server is vitally important to making money and making more money as a P.I.

Obviously, it’s so much easier to get repeat business from your current clients than to constantly be trying to find new clients!

Initially, it may seem like there’s some bumper-sticker answers to this question. Something like, “Find the guy they hired me to find.” or “Bring back the video evidence that they hired me to get while I was on surveillance.” or “Serve the process server packs I told them I would serve.”

And, yes, doing the job and being successful at the job is part of it. But, let me suggest you think of it this way…

Make a big promise and keep the promises you make.

Look, when you’re trying to get business (marketing), you’re contacting potential clients and existing clients. Whether you’re doing that through social media posts, direct mail, face to face, phone calls, or whatever, you need to get their attention and you do that with a “headline”.

Imagine a sales letter. Across the top is a headline.

In the old days, the big words across the top of the letter might be the stationary letterhead showing your company name and address. It’s printed on the paper. Then you take that paper, put it in the typewriter and type the letter. That’s not the way it is anymore.

If you imagine a modern sales letter that you might get in the mail, or even the type of thing you see online, that big print on the top (the headline), is frequently a promise. And a lot of times it’s the biggest promise you can make to your client!

If you think about this in any other industry, it becomes very clear and you can see it clearly.

Imagine some crazy weight loss supplement some company is trying to sell. (By the way, you can’t buy a pill, take it, and lose weight. It doesn’t work that way.) But, you’ll see this also with all sorts of supplements and things like that. The headlines for those pills might me something like “Lose 13 pounds in 7 days, even if you’ve never worked a diet successfully before!” (Or Something like that.)

Notice that headline is “The Big Promise” that this diet pill is making!

That kind of promise is what a person is interested in when they want to lose weight. They don’t care that National Supplement Weight Loss Conglomerate of America, LLC makes the pill. Nobody cares about their company name. All they want is to lose weight fast and easy. All they want is the promise. They want to know, “What’s in it for me?”

Bring that home to our industry.

Think about it in terms of what we do. Then approach the client and make a promise.

You have services you offer. You may have guarantees that you offer. If that’s the case, that’s the promise you’re making to the client!

Let’s look specifically at process serving for a moment, because I can give you a very good, concrete example.

Real-World Example

Some law firms have trouble with their process servers not filing their return of service promptly. I have seen this firsthand and how it can bite a law firm in the rear end (in court during a case!). It can bring everything to a screeching halt until it can be fixed. That’s not where any lawyer firm wants to be. Especially in front of their client!

Your client (the law firm) wants a solution to this problem!

They just want to push a magic button and make the thing happen.

If they know all they have to do is say, “Here’s our service packs. Call Larry and have him serve ’em.” then they’re happy because they know it’s taken care of! They don’t have to worry about it!

I’ve had law firms as clients who I don’t think they even call me by name. It’s just, “Call our guy. Call our guy and get these things served.” I’m the solution to their problem. And you need to be the solution to the problem your client have.

What kind of promise does that look like?

For a law firm that’s having problems with their process server because he or she’s not filing return of service promptly – and that is, by the way, in inexcusable in my book – you can send them a letter, with a headline, that says, “Return of service filed on time, every time.” Or, “Never again worry that return of service hasn’t been filed.” Or something like that. Clean it up, work with it a little bit. But, make them a promise they care about!

An Important Side Note

By the way, if you don’t know what I mean when I’m talking about “filing return of service”, I’ll put out a video explaining this, but, also, I teach all about it in The Investigator’s Ultimate Guide to Process Serving. Soup to nuts. Everything you need to know to successfully server process and add more profit to your bottom line is in there.

What if they already have a P.I. or Process Server?

I get emails all the time from people who say, “Hey, Larry. I’m having trouble getting new business because every time I reach out to a law firm, they’ve already got a process server. They’ve already got an investigator.”

Here’s what to do… Keep knocking on those doors. Keep sending them letters. Keep contacting them, because…

1. They may not be super happy with their process server or their current investigator. And…

2. Even if they are happy, things happen.

Process servers move on to other jobs and a spot opens up for you.

I got a big break once when a law firm’s Private Investigator, God help him, had a heart attack. He couldn’t work anymore for this large law firm so they gave me a call!

There’s a little behind the scenes story with that. I didn’t end up working for them, and that’s a whole other story about whether or not you should take criminal defense cases.

My point is, here’s a company that had an investigator. They were very happy with his work, but when that investigator had to step aside, I was their first and only call because they had been getting letters from me every month or so in the mail, reminding them that I’m here and making them a big promise!

After You Get Hired

Once you get hired, you keep the promise.

Look, nobody is hiding the secrets to business success from you. The things you need to do to be successful are out there. If you don’t know them, maybe it’s a secret to you, but the information’s out there.

A Secret

If there are business success secrets, maybe this is one of them… Make a big strong promise to your client, and then keep that promise.

They’ll be happy and they’ll hire you over and over again.

The other nice thing is this “marketing secret” goes hand in hand with what I tell you every week, and that is… Do the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing.

If you like these helpful tips, then don’t miss out on my free special report If You Want To Be a Private Investigator Give Up… Unless You Do These Three Things. You can get it right here…

Committed to your success,
Larry Kaye, P.I.

P.S. – In summary: Make a big promise to your client then keep the promise. That’s what’ll keep your client happy. That’s what’ll keep them coming back to you.