Customer Archives - TODAY INDIA

Carwash Marketing and Customer Retention – Back to Basics

Creating marketing and promotions that work are a great challenge for car wash owners and operators. The fundamental problem that many car washes run into is that they will never generate the level of customer loyalty that they are hoping for unless they meet the basic needs of their customers first. If a wash owner can identify consumer behavior, he or she will be in a better position to target products and services at them. Buyer behavior is focused upon the needs of individuals, groups, and organizations.

It is important to understand the relevance of human needs to buyer behavior because marketing is about satisfying needs. Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs is taught in psychology classes around the world and the theory outlines the very basic human needs that must be provided in order to truly experience higher emotions such as achievement, respect, and self-esteem. At the lowest tier of this hierarchy are the basic needs such as food, air, water, heat, and the basic necessities of survival need to be satisfied. You cannot move up to higher levels of the hierarchy unless your basic needs are met.

Consumers also have a very specific set of needs that must be addressed. To understand consumer buyer behavior is to understand how the person interacts with your marketing message.

Consider that every consumer is going to be influenced by their culture and word of mouth, attitude towards washing, their ability to learn by instruction (customer education), and their perceptions of the wash facility. There are a number of NEEDS that must first be met before a consumer can move to making a purchasing decision, location choice, brand choice, and any other choices they will inevitably make.

Customer Needs

At the very basic level a car wash operator must appeal to the basic needs of their customer before they can consider focusing on establishing customer loyalty.

The decision making process for a customer of a car wash will be to first determine which car wash facilities they will use followed by comparing the available choices against a number of other criterion.

Basic Need 1: Quality

This is where it comes down to truth in advertising. You need to provide the very basics for a customer to properly wash their vehicle. If you cannot clean the car with soap and water your failing as a business that specializes in vehicle care. It should be no surprise to a wash owner that people will stop using your wash if it does not get their car clean. The second aspect of quality is when a customer has access to problem-free equipment. If wash equipment is damage or in disrepair this will impact whether a customer will use your facility.

Basic Need 2: Appearance

Most wash customers rate cleanliness as one of the most important factors of a car wash. Locations with dirty walls, peeling instruction signs and faded decals will see a noticeable drop in customer retention.

Basic Need 3: Safety

Customers that visit car wash facilities next consider their safety when using a wash facility. Locations with poor lighting and excessive loitering will drive customers away and keep them from coming back if they did not feel safe when using the wash facility.

Basic Need 4: Value

In order to create a loyal customer a car wash owner needs to create value in the service that they provide. Value is going to be perceived differently by every customer and as a wash owner you need to evaluate your demographics to find out what will be the most important to them.

Examples of Value Propositions:

Environmentally Friendly – A car wash that focuses on environmental stewardship, water conservation, energy conservation, sustainable chemicals, and promotes this will create value for a wide demographic.

Charity Support – Car wash owners have the opportunity to get involved in their local community by supporting local charities and organizations. Car wash operations have a huge opportunity to be known as the community-based wash business in town.

Car Wash Club – By taking advantage of a loyalty card system car wash operators can give customers a reason to ‘buy-in’ to their loyalty program through incentives and promotions. Consumers have been trained by big-box retail to be a card-carrying customer and operations that take advantage of loyalty card programs are highly competitive in their local markets.

Rain Guarantees – Many full service and express wash operations offer a rain guarantee which gives a consumer piece of mind and security in their wash purchase.

Unlimited Wash Programs – Programs that allow for unlimited washes in exchange for a monthly payment or an annual subscription have been found to be highly successful in certain markets.

Low Price Guarantee – There has been a huge explosion in the number of low-cost express washes opening up around the country. This model will not work for every owner or even every market, but the growing trend is worth watching. Some markets are having record-breaking profits and others struggle to make ends meet with such low margins.

Superior Customer Service – Having great services has long been one of the big selling points for going to a full service carwash. Whenever you have employees on site you have a wonderful opportunity to provide great customer service.

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is something that is earned by a business by satisfying your customers needs as a consumer. If you can meet the basic needs, establish value in your services, and remain consistent in the delivery of your service your customers will remain regular customers.

What does success look like?

In order to appeal to the widest number of customers your focus should be to focus on getting back to basics. Once you can be the clean, safe, quality carwash that offers simple value statements to your customers you can then focus on additional value added promotions to bring customers back.

The difference between a successfully promoted business and a business that fails to promote successfully is that in the long run you are remembered by your customers for what you’ve done for them. Far too many car wash businesses think that by slashing prices and giving huge discounts will win over new customers. Discounting only goes so far when you are trying to bring in new customers because discounting is temporary and long-term price cuts hurt your bottom line. As long as you are meeting your customers basic needs a successful promotion will engage your customers and community in ways that will endear themselves to you and your business. A successfully promoted car wash business will not be known as “the cheap wash” in their community. The successful wash in town will be known as “the charity wash”, “the fundraiser wash”, “the wash that drives the funny car in the local parade”, “the fast wash”, “the convenient wash”, or we can hope at the very least the wash is known as, “the wash that gets my car clean”. These are the value statements that we should strive for within our local communities and with the customers we do business with.

The Unattractive Customer Offer – Why Do It?

It’s not rocket science, so why do so many retail companies disadvantage their existing customers with offers which don’t make logical, emotional or possibly even financial sense? Here are two examples of offers which I have received during the past 10 days.

While visiting the beautiful city of York with my wife, we noticed a retail clothing store called White Stuff. They sell a very attractive range of mid-price, unique design clothing for men and women. What I enjoy about this store’s approach to customer value and satisfaction is simple. They serve first – and earn second. How so?

Well, my wife and I first came across this store during a holiday in the Lake District. My wife wanted to purchase some clothes for her new job and she enjoyed browsing the unusual but very attractive designs. They had a sale on which was also a bonus for me! As my wife browsed, the store attendant gently offered to assist my wife if she would like. Politely declining the kind offer, my wife continued to browse. The attendant’s attention smoothly changed focus from my wife… to me!

‘You’re welcome to relax on the sofa if you wish sir’, and a half-second later continued, ‘or you can enjoy the range of gentlemen’s clothing over here’, gesturing towards where she wanted me to be. Buying!

I did notice a jumper which I would have liked to have bought, but the only size in store was too small for me. But, it wasn’t a lost cause. She picked up the phone and called their store 8 miles down the road. Yes, the sister store did have a larger jumper in store and they would deliver it to this store for 9am the next morning. ‘I’d be happy to arrange delivery for you sir… Shall I do that for you?’. How clever as well as professional! Why? Because this young lady had been so polite, gently helpful and discreet that I would have felt a little awkward rejecting her offer of help. Also, by accident or design, including the words ‘Shall I do that FOR YOU’? added a very personal slant. It’s the law of reciprocity in action. She was offering to be helpful to me, so I was compelled to return the favour.

Yes, we did buy and the whole experience was very positive. So, on to York. A different store location wise, but very similar in terms of offers. Unfortunately for me, there was no sale or discounts being advertised, but a genuinely friendly welcome from the female assistant was followed around 5 minutes later with an extended arm offering to hold the 3 shirts I had taken off the rack, while I continued to browse. The next offer? ‘I’ll put these in the changing room for you to try on when you’ve finished.’ How cool! In a very professional, non-pushy sense, there was little opportunity of me leaving the store without first trying on the items of clothing she had ‘kindly’ held for me.

Another offer, and a very subtle one at that was this. ‘I’ll give you an over the shoulder bag which is free of charge’. Nice gesture. Not that I ever pay for carrier bags in any store. My local health food store wants to charge ten pence for a carrier bag (apparently to help the environment and save the planet). All along, there I was thinking that they were just generating additional income from themselves because they were jumping on the bandwagon of being good corporate citizens. This is the health store that following ringing over £30 of goods through their cash till stated to me ‘And the carrier bag is ten pence…is this ok?’ My polite and assertive response? ‘Well, no actually it isn’t, I won’t be paying additional funds for the privilege of paying you good money for these goods’. Stunned silence followed until the gentleman advised me that it was ‘Company Policy’ to charge for bags. My polite and still assertive response? ‘Thank you for letting me know that, as I stated earlier, I won’t be paying YOUR COMPANY to make money off an environmental issue.’ When I asked whether the proceeds generated from every bag sale – and every customer’s blind compliance with their ‘Company Policy’ was donated to a charitable organisation his face changed…as did his manner. Guess who lost a customer?

Back to White Stuff. The offers they made were timely, beneficial for the customer, cost nothing but a few seconds of their time, generated rapport and an element of trust and were partnered with a high-quality product at a price I was willing to pay. How cool is that? Very cool I think!

Now let’s look at the other side. Last night I spotted an advert in the newspaper from my local hairdressing salon. The offer is detailed below, word for word as published.

MANAGER SPECIAL – CUT & BLOW DRY

NEW CLIENTS ONLY £40

SAVING YOU £15

What’s wrong with this offer? This SPECIAL offer? You guessed it! If you have never visited this salon and had your hair cut by the manager, you pay ONLY £40. Apparently, this SAVES YOU £15. Let’s think about this. If you’ve never had your hair cut by the Manager previously, you benefit from a perceived saving of £15. But, if you are a regular client of the Manager, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE! How fair is that offer? In simple terms, if you’re a long-standing client who has helped this company grow their business, or at the very least, remain in business, you are penalised. Why? Because you are a loyal, existing client.

The acquisition of new clients is absolutely essential to any company. I understand this fully. But actively penalising existing clients and customers is potentially commercial suicide. So, if you are a consumer, be careful what offers you accept from organisations. If you are a business, you too need to think carefully before publishing well-meaning but potentially dangerous offers.

Take Your Customer Service Dept From ‘Cost Saving & Cost Reduction’ To High Profit & Business Growth

The more communication I have with people involved in telephone service and sales, such as Contact/Call Centers and Customer Service Departments, the more amazed I become at the reluctance to create more sales and profit opportunities through better interaction with current customers, reactivation of lost accounts and new business acquisition.

Companies are forever seeking ways to cut costs and reduce staff – particularly so in Call/Contact Centers (turning so many into ‘Call ‘n’ Wait’ disaster zones) – they often fail to see what rewards they can achieve by using the following formula:

1 humble telephone + 1 skilled operator + 1 established sales system = HUGE PROFITS!

Here are twelve ideas that can dramatically improve your bottom line RESULTS build greater customer RELATIONSHIPS and earn you (a company of any size and industry) more REVENUE.

1. Build the loyalty of your current customers

A ‘no brainer’ right? Why is that so many customers cannot get through to you, when it suits them?

Why are you constantly offering free incentives and reduced prices to gain new business?

CRM is meant to be the new service elixir. Well it is worth nothing if you don’t listen to your customers.

Here’s an example – in the last six months or so, a metropolitan daily newspaper has offered ten-week subscriptions for $39.90 (I pay more and have subscribed for 20 years), contests (win wine if you subscribe, see a rock group in concert!) and give-aways to induce new subscribers. Me, I get some sort of special club membership with the odd discount or special offer. But hey, so do the new subscribers! Who’s ahead?

2. Gain referrals from current customers

The cost of losing customers is almost incalculable. Add to that the people they tell about their bad experiences and the people they never refer to you.

Instead, offer your current customers a total strategy of satisfaction and benefits. Then, encourage them to tell others.

Don’t reward these referred customers (but do give them total satisfaction and benefits). Do reward your current customer for their referral. Develop a system that will encourage customers to tell friends, family, their customers and associates about you and then say ‘thank you’ or offer them something of value for their efforts.

3. Add VALUE to every sale

Here is a really simple equation: If you give value – you get more sales.

That’s it. If your people are trained to offer advice and information, educate customers, offer them creativity and innovation then your customers will buy more products and services, more often.

Even if your prices are slightly higher. This was the IBM way, back in the 60’s and 70’s with some great lessons to be learned. IBM charged the steepest prices in the industry but their service and support was legendary. The phrase ‘no one ever got fired for buying IBM’ originated way back then.

4. Turn an enquiry into a prospect

Then, turn that prospect into a customer. Then turn that customer into an advocate, one of your company’s ‘raving fans’.

All you need are trained people, a system and a monitoring and measuring plan. Simple? Yes it is, and like all things mentioned in this article, I will bet that some of your people excel at this and a number of them perform basic courtesies with callers – and that’s it.

5. Create an upsell program

One becomes two. Two becomes four. Four becomes … greater than the GDP of Argentina.

It is so simple, easy and effective and so few organisations employ this strategy. Many of your people don’t do this because they think the additional cost will put the customer off. It doesn’t. Not if the customer actually sees the benefit of greater quantity or improved quality.

6. Cross-sell at every opportunity

What can your people add on the original purchase? Extended warranty, on-site service, insurance, a savings if they purchase an additional item(s), a special offer or other options?

If everyone in your organisation upsold and cross-sold at every given opportunity, your sales would soar. I have witnessed increases of between 15-45% in companies where a simple upsell/cross-sell strategy was installed.

7. Negotiate on price

Don’t just offer a discount or ‘best price to you’. Let me reiterate, if you give value – you get more sales. Negotiate price. Train your people that by dropping price, they are giving away margin. So, if you offer a discount negotiate an upsell and/or cross sell. Package or bundle your offer to make it attractive and a genuine customer benefit.

8. Follow up

Every time your people give a quote, send a proposal or brochure out via fax, mail or e.mail, they should record a follow up timeframe.

Between one hour and three days. Everyone who requests information should be followed up by telephone. This leads to a higher close or conversion rate (I have witnessed 20-50%) or, if they have purchased elsewhere – your follow up call may be the commencement of a relationship … or not. But you won’t know if you don’t follow up.

This rule should also be applied to complaint management. Most companies have no follow through with people who have complained.

9. Adopt a ‘keep in touch’ program

What can you do for your customers that will allow you to contact them on a planned, regular basis?

Special offers, new product or service introductions or …? The best forms of ‘keep in touch’ are e.mail combined with a regular phone call.

But be warned – you should have a purpose for every call you make or email you send. Don’t just bombard your customers (and prospects) with garbage.

10. Develop a systematic approach to lost customer reactivation

The longer you fail to make or maintain contact, the likelier you are to lose customers forever.

If you check the most recent contact vs previous contact frequency, you can detect a lost or about to be lost customer. Do something to regain their business.

This is the most costly part of your operation – the lost customer, the lost referral.

Do you have a lost customer reactivation plan?

11. Gain new customers

Why are there so few high quality telemarketing divisions in companies? Certainly, the ‘T’ word is considered dirty and grubby in some quarters and indeed it can be. However, where you have trained professionals, comprehensively developed objectives and strategies why wouldn’t a well run telemarketing campaigns gain new business and new relationships for your organisation?

Quality telemarketing will generate leads, open up new business channels/market segments, build business with small, marginal and distance customers, give you real value (as a follow up) from exhibitions and seminars.

This is one of the most under utilised resources for business acquisition (and reactivation).

12. Develop and work your system

Success will come in all of the previously mentioned guidelines, tips and hints if you adopt a systematic approach. That is:

a) A sales and service oriented contact management system, based on a quality CRM package.

b) Well trained people who consistently add value to and gain value from every call they take or make.

c) Monitoring, Measuring and Reviewing each of the above and seeking continuous improvement both in contact management and people skills.

It is simple and what’s more, it works. Use the power of the humble telephone (and quality people) wisely, and you will gain great RESULTS: Relationships and Revenue.

10 Secrets To Online Success (It’s All About The Customer)

You’ve got your web site online. You’re on top of the search engines. You have killer web site copy. Now all you have to do is wait for the sales to roll in right? Well … not exactly.

In the last five years of working with all types of businesses, the most common mistake companies make is believing that their web site will do all of the work for them. Sure, a web site will definitely help productivity but it can never replace the human element of your business. Potential customers are still looking for some type of bond that brings them into your company, something that still makes them feel important and like an individual – they are looking for real people with real knowledge. And the reason why people choose to buy from you is because of you.

One of the most overlooked aspects of web sites is online customer service and ultimately your email correspondences. Think about it: if a “sales prospect” called your business would you leave them waiting a day or more before replying? Now, unless you work for a bank or just don’t want the business, you would never do that. But as crazy as it sounds, this is what many companies are doing. Sabotaging their own success simply by putting off returning emails to clients.

Here are a few basic rules I personally go by and suggest you adopt:

1. Develop a sorting mechanism in your email program so that you can answer your “sales oriented” emails first and then others later.

2. Answer sales oriented emails in under ½ day if possible (even a simple return email “I am working on it” will suffice in some cases).

3. Answer non-essential emails within 1- 2 days.

4. When you respond to any email, make sure you include at least the following information 1) Your name + your company name, 2) your title, 3) address, 4) telephone (with area code), 5) your return email, 6) your web site and 7) lastly make sure your subject line makes sense!

Also consider the following:

1. The web is now used more than the yellow pages when people are looking to buy a product.

2. It is very probable that your potential customer also contacted your competition.

3. Like your first sales meeting with a prospect, make your email stand out. Tell them what makes you different.

4. Your prospect probably gets SPAM emails on a regular basis..

Make sure that the subject line is not confused with SPAM or your email may never even get read!

5. Make your subject line short and don’t come across as a used sales car person. A simple subject such as: As per your request at ABC.Com is usually sufficient.

6. Do not send files larger than 500k (1/2 a mb) – as a lot of people are still on dial-up.

Following these simple steps will maximize the benefits of your web site. In today’s fast moving economy, the old cliché “you snooze you lose” is more real than ever. And remember the web is no different than any other medium when it comes to building rapport/relationships with your clients. Have fun, stand out from the crowd and you will be surprised by the results.

Small Businesses – Measuring Business Performance From The Customer Perspective

Measuring your business performance from the customer perspective is a must for any business, regardless of its size. It will pay small business owners to become intimately familiar with the Key Performance Indicators used to measure, monitor and provide the actionable insights needed to readily adapt your business to the changing demands of its customers whilst maintaining a growth trajectory.

Regardless of the industry you are in there are core set of metrics you need to apply to your business. The core customer metrics you need to become familiar with are:

* Market Share/Market Penetration

* Customer Acquisition

* Customer Retention

* Customer Satisfaction

* Customer Profitability

Market Share/Market Penetration

Market Share reflects the proportion of business in a given market (in terms of customer numbers, dollars spent, or unit volume sold) that a business sells. To measure this effectively, you need access to market research which identifies the size of the total market.

These market figures are usually available from your government statistician, industry bodies and trade associations. The government statistician provides high level research and is usually available for free. Industry groups and trade associations may charge non-members, while members may access the information for free, or at a reduced rate.

While these reports usually provide information about the Market Share of each of the competitors, it is usually limited to only those competitors that hold significant share in the market, while small businesses and start-ups are lumped together in a single measure. So until you reach critical mass and are rewarded with recognition in the market research papers, my suggestion is that you substitute the Market Share key performance indicator with the Market Penetration measure.

Market Penetration uses the your business’s customer numbers, dollars spent or units of volume sold and measures them against the total market figures to get some idea as to your performance in this area.

Customer Acquisition

Measures, in absolute or relative terms, the rate at which a business unit attracts or wins new customers or business. Typically, if your business is on a grow path your objective will be to increase your customer base. Usually it is measured by either the number of new customers or the total sales to new customers. Measures could also be applied to each customer segment if you apply customer relationship management principles.

Another key measure that I suggest you apply in relation to measuring customer acquisition is the Acquisition Cost. This measures the performance of your marketing campaign in regards to the achieving the desired outcome – acquiring new customers.

Acquisition Cost is the number of new customers since the campaign started divided by the total marketing campaign cost.

The final measure to add is the Customer Conversion Rate, which measures the total number of leads generated divided by the number who actually made purchases, and expressed as a percentage.

Customer Retention

Tracks, in absolute or relative terms, the rate at which a business retains or maintains ongoing relationships with its customers. Clearly, the best way for increasing market share is to start by retaining your existing customer base. Customer Retention is measured by measuring your existing customer base at the beginning of a given period divided by the number of lost customers during that period. It is sometimes difficult to identify when they are considered to be ‘lost’. I’d suggest that anyone who did not make a purchase for over a year, is a lost customer.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer retention and customer satisfaction are driven by meeting customer needs. A successful business will be looking to provide customers’ innovative products with an excellent value proposition. Research has shown high degrees of customer satisfaction correlate with achieving loyalty, retention and profitability. Today, with competitors only a mouse click away, your focus should be on generating ‘raving fans’ by providing them with exceptional customer experiences. This not only drives repeat custom but creates valuable word-of-mouth recommendations to their family and friends.

You need to derive a satisfaction measure based on direct feedback from your customers. This measure will differ for each business, but should assess each component of the buyer’s experience to garner actionable insights which will act to focus your attention and activities.

Customer Profitability

This measures the net profit of a customer after allowing for the unique expenses required to support that customer. A financial measure like customer profitability, keeps the business from becoming customer-obsessed. Companies should aim to have more than satisfied and happy customers – they should be aiming for profitable customers.

This helps the business to assess whether they should continue in a particular market or,due to the drain on the business, should choose to opt-out.

Implementing core customer metrics in your organisation can help you track your performance and provide the basis for effective, fact-based decision-making in your small business.

Role of Customer Service – Why It’s Important to Your Business

Plan to get the financial Data:

Blockchain technology usually attends the financial sector, but they could transform the number of industries and range from the Internet of Things (IoT) which support to healthcare and from the supply chain to arts and entertainment.

Blockchain expert explains the technologies has broad reach comes from its employment to secure and efficient way. To ensure data integrity, transparency, immutability and fairness, across different types of transactions.

Existing business functions Ideas:

We are the proprietor and managing director of cryptoappfactory.com, and also Blockchain. We can improve an existing business system using pursuing the idea to create a competitive advantage through more efficient accounting processes and solving potential customers’ challenges.

We are ready to prove the second point where P2P energy-trading platform, eliminates the middleman from renewable energy sales. And another Blockchain startup provides a platform that seamlessly shares data along supply chains. Investors seem to like the startups’ solutions to everyday problems, awarding more than million to Origin Trail and over million to Power Ledger.

Capital fundraising:

Ideas to create a new service model and products to launch on your business, we support the capital work concept for better choose blockchain services and support for business.

We use Cryptocurrency to get the alternate solution to the traditional funding project. The Cryptocurrency has startups using work capital amount on the direct investment tag using token generation events. The fellows have some policies to maintain and support the project as per legal services.

Attain New Customer Services:

Blockchain technology has cryptocurrencies model that they could transmit the data into an extended field on market. The Cryptocurrency have private and public investment to verify the transaction on recognizing companies to attract the Bitcoin and other online currency also. It helps to support and translate into sales.

According to blockchain tool, we have large media data to highlighted and transmitted on the forum through small family business. The PIVX has storage devices to get a new client and customer in to get the Bitcoin easier and faster on payment modes.

Cyber Security Empower:

We use half of the Bitcoin to share on private data breaches and half of the data to share on public data breaches. In each company they have some qualify experienced support for learning the business into the next level of approaches. Blockchain technology can be used to reduce your risk of a data breach.

Blockchain has enhanced cybersecurity efforts which we have infrastructure, transparency, event tracking, cryptography and other security data sharing information systems.

Ensure Bitcoin Privacy:

Privacy policies have several complementary tasks on cybersecurity systems. It is an important consideration to follow the particular consumers to purchase the Bitcoin to safeguard your information through online.

Bitcoin privacy is very important because even implementing your regulation of your Bitcoin the data protection has many features which we have more strength privacy laws. Blockchain can solve the element by creating and protecting the consumer data attention to build transparency and trust between consumer and brands. We offer a sample of data to share on live idea market using the big platform. The blockchain developers have big user ability to share and store the information on different entities.

Global Challenges using Cryptocurrency:

At last, we have entrepreneurs who like to capitalize on the employing blockchain technology to build the other places to devastate by natural disasters.

We have stated with Forbes who can share the capitalist done on the market using Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and blockchain. We residents have a panel to interact and reconnect to get the power grid, and also we sell Bitcoin wallet for either local private or public ventures.

This blockchain is the easiest way to help the Cryptocurrency platform in the easiest way of response. We offer Bitcoin and other currencies in the market which is empowering your business in an easy manner.