The gifts that keep on giving back
Since this is the season to be giving,
let’s all show how we can be charitable and at least be
in a giving mood.
My thoughts go a little further while we
are in this charitable mood. Can we still be giving to
ourselves, our business, our community?
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Whatever you were doing right, you kept
on doing. You continued to invest in equipment and in training
the right people and you became the successful business that
you are today. With the miracle of advertising, and the harder
you worked, the luckier you became.
How can we count our blessings and good
fortune and show the gratitude for our well being while at the
same time make it appear as a big Thank You?
Look at some of the top companies in
industry, such as airlines that offer you a free flight for
continuing to fly with them Aren’t they making you a
creature of habit? And isn’t that also making you a
valued and continuous steady paying customer?
Can drycleaners do the same and look even
more generous? You want to be entrepreneurial and treat your
important customers with the respect and value they deserve.
I hope you are computer literate, or are
least able to appreciate that valuable and necessary tool
that’s now in your possession. Have you put together an
accurate data base? Who are your customers? How often do they
trade with you? How much do they spend?
More important, do you have the means and
method of making them be that captured Creature of Habit that
will only deal with you? Do you chart and update those who have
stopped dealing with you, and do you know why?
What makes this so important is that you
now have at your fingertips complete information about your
customers. This means you can allot and afford any advertising
or promotion budget, where when and how to direct it.
Wouldn’t it be great to know which program works, and
does its cost justify the return and results?
We didn’t start out to be
bookkeepers and accountants, but it’s nice to know that
we can measure success, eliminate flaws, and chart our
progress. More important it’s all in our system now!
Our business has changed from the three
most important factors — location, location and location.
I like to think that my “Route to Success”
pamphlets, which are requested by about a dozen a month, have
made many an operator aware that you can grow to any proportion
that your business and space can handle profitably.
Can you see it now? There’s the
smiling counter person, wearing a smart uniform with the
company name on the jacket or blouse with a personal name tag
and a pleasant greeting. “Good Morning, Mrs. Jones. I
love the color of this dress, coat etc. Are there any seams
loose or buttons?
“Do you know we do small tailoring
at no charge? Usually it’s more work to find an open seam
than is to mend it.
“We can have this Thursday or would
Wednesday be better?
“We also have a new 10 percent
discount just by paying in advance with any standard credit
card. You sign up just once, and thereafter you receive a
pre-paid statement once a month showing your discounts.
It’s simple, and our customers love it! We can also have
this delivered at your convenience at no extra charge! Would
Thursday be good?”
Now you’ve got it all with a few
extra bonuses. You have the start of a route service. When
making a delivery, you leave a colorful calling card next door,
upstairs, downstairs or across the street, always making at
least six calls without moving your newly painted van.
The smiling driver introduces himself. No
super salesmanship. Just a polite call while handing the card:
“Hi, I have the pleasure of serving your neighbor and
we’re offering one garment beautifully drycleaned at no
charge to show the kind of work we do at XYZ cleaners.
I’d like you to please try us.” (It’s most
important to say try).
Believe me, it’s that simple.
People love to be included and be associated with their friends
and neighbors.
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