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Reach Customers without Spending Much Money

By Keith Duplessie
03/27/2008
Continued from page 2

information for any new customers. They should be added to your customer database along with detailed information about what they purchased.

Display Your Expertise

All of your employees should be experts in the services your offer. The process of becoming an expert should start with the information you can easily gather from your suppliers. They provide information about the products you use, including steps for proper use. Each of your employees should be well-versed in this information.

It is a good idea to hold meetings and provide training on all of your products and services. This has to be the first step in the sales process.

Your business is supposed to be the expert. By educating customers about the benefits of your detail services, you’ll establish your company as a group of trusted, knowledgeable professionals.

As you provide information, the next step is to expand the conversation to include other related products or services that enhance customers’ investment in their vehicles and provide the best possible service. This accomplishes the goals of building trust and maximizing your opportunities to up sell customers.

Once employees are well-versed in your products and services, help them understand the scope of your marketing program and how they fit into it.

Education offers a win-win situation. Success is measured by customer retention and referrals, as well as employee retention.

Offer a Free Car-Care Workshop

To provide an educational service and build relationships with customers, some detail business owners offer free car-care workshops. These can be offered to the community at large, your existing customer base or just a specific portion of your customer base, depending on what you want to accomplish.

Workshops can be offered at your location or at an alternative site, like a library or community meeting space. Workshop content should be focused on your products and services and how they benefit customers. Educate them on what they can do themselves and where they would benefit from professional services.

Be sure to include a simple question-and-answer session so attendees can provide you with valuable information regarding the vehicles they own, what they use them for and what they would want to achieve with a car-care program.

Armed with their answers, you can determine what kind of detail services to recommend. By doing so, you can simultaneously expand your relationship with the community, provide help, position yourself as an expert and increase your opportunities to make sales.

To measure success, simply hand out an attendee-only discount coupon at the end of the workshop that must be brought in at the time of service. This is a great way to thank those in attendance. It invites them to visit your business and provides a simple, easy way to track success.

Host an Open House

If there is one strategy that is guaranteed to please everyone all the time, it is providing free food and drink. An open house is the perfect, no-pressure way to bring folks in the door so they can see your location, meet your team and see what you do.

Plan your event for a few hours during an evening or on the weekend. Once the event is planned, implement any number of the marketing strategies outlined previously to promote your event, including getting a news release to

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