Thought I would bounce this off of some of you. I was thinking about doing some sort of window cleaning rewards card for current customers. Do up some sort of stand alone business card that has discounts on it for certain months throughout the year. A 10% off on each service in selected months. Any of you thought about this? You could also get a little punch tool that has a design on it from a scrapbooking shop to punch them out. It could just possibly turn those once a year customers into quarterly accounts. Who knows?
It is a good thing to implement into our business. I know a couple of people on here that have a rewards program type of thing. I will allow them speak about it themselves, if they want to.
What I like about it, it is one more reason for me to keep in contact with them (out of site, out of mind).
Percentages off are known ad killers. Higher responses occur more frequently with an exact number off. Even if it is less than the %! Percentages are elusive amounts that takes figuring. They do not want to decipher our offers…
$20 off will beat 20% off 9 out of 10 times. “Half off” is king
I believe exact amounts would work better in a program geared toward our current clients. I would customize an amount they would save. I would put together a program and mail it to my clients. Let’s say our good client Mary that pays $200 per visit gets a surprise letter from me-
[COLOR=“Red”]Great News Mary, You Have Rewards![/COLOR]
[B]
Your next window cleaning will only be $180![/B]
Of course I would have an entire letter full of thank yous and explain it a bit. Why I am at it, I would mention how they could get even more rewards for referrals.
CFP is right, % means nothing compared to hard numbers. I had fliers with different percentages off but it tanked. My last flier had X number of windows for X amount of dollars. That one has been my best ROI so far.
I don’t know how many repeat customers you’re going to send these cards out to but if you can personalize them I think it would work better. Knowing what they paid the last time and giving them hard numbers in regards to savings should work well.
I figure I can give these to new customers and old ones. Wouldnt it be sweet to have a slot with a special for the month of August? Most Residential cleaners experience a slow down during that month. I have done % and dollar amounts on fliers and I have received far greater results giving a dollar amount versus %. It could also shoot you in the foot doing a $400.00 Residential and giving $40.00 up from the sale (10% Discount).
Im definately going to do this. Any ideas on layout and wording? Restrictions that apply?
I run a fairly tight little “points-based” rewards program that has generated a fair amount of buzz within my existing client base, and been a fun add-on to my marketing machine.
Interestingly, my customers had to redeem by midnight tonight to qualify, and it seems that they have forgotten all about it! Only a handful have cashed in, but they are big-time clients.
One of them received two $250 Starbucks gift cards ($500 total)
Another got one $50 restaurant gift card, and two $20 gift cards for Tim Hortons (coffee shop chain)
The rest have snoozed and lost it seems, although they have 4 hours left.
More importantly, their lack of disclipline has given me a unique chance to impress them by redeeming their points at least for SOMETHING, which I’ll be sending in the mail the end of January. They have forfeited redemption rights, so I can now transform that same allocated amount into a “gift” form, which is a bit more appreciated and effective as a marketing strategy.
The old “goodness of my heart” angle…
I think the points program idea is a good one, but I think I’ll swap it out this coming year (2008) for something more effective and targeted at my BEST clients, instead.
Paneless,
Looks nice. I was thinking about doing a card type thing that had dollar amounts instead of a point system. It would be tough for me to track it I would think. I guess the card that I want to do should be named a services discount card instead of a rewards program. Great points and thanks for sharing what you have. Very nice website! I enjoy reading websites written like they are talking to you. Good job.
Paneless I am confused cuz you say this created a fair amount of buzz and is a add on to your marketing but…if less than 5 of your existing customer base reacted to this marketing wouldnt that mean this approach did not work as a marketing tool? Unless your customer base is like 20.
What I meant is that ironically, this program helped me to [B][I]land [/I][/B]a large number of new clients, and [B][I]maintain[/I][/B] a large number of existing clients, yet when the deadline came and passed for redemption, almost [I][B]no one cashed in[/B][/I] on the free rewards that they had earned.
Its as if I told everyone “hey, if you come in, you get a free popsicle” and tons of people said ‘Yay - a free popsicle!’, but then never took me up on the offer before they left…
Thats what I meant. If that makes any sense at all.
Winderwasher: Thx for the compliment. Yeah - I understand what you are saying with the dollar amount being hard to track. And the advantage of a ‘points-based’ rewards system is that the clients who spend more (aka your BEST clients) receive more from you too.
As far as tracking goes, I have that downloadable PDF that a client has to print, complete, and then fax/mail in to redeem, so that I can officially track all redemptions. Click on any of those different pictures, and you’ll see it.
I have also had issues getting my clients to really care about a program. If they really care, they WILL redeem. I believe it would be easier to push for referrals using a rewards system. I am working on something and will surely fill you in on it when and if it sparks interest.
If I had that turn out like Paneless, I would revamp the entire thing… which I have and I am.
I would never have guessed how difficult it would be to give something away.
I am looking at possibly doing a dollar amount for certain months. Im worried that it might have a negative effect on the other months though. If I sent my customers a card that gave them a killer deal in March to jump start Spring, what about April & May sales? My goal is to land more repeat business while filling in those months that have a history for being a slump in sales. This will be hard to find a balance.
One of my customers is a Servpro owner and he once told me that if I would become a “coupon window cleaner”, it could have a negative effect on my business in the long run. Starting a discount program can be positive and negative. He said that customers will wait until you run a special again before they call you. That is why I am hesitant to do a mass mailing. Im probably reading into this just a little too much. Or am I?
I have a few clients I have got over the years that I got through a smoking special. Some of them never get a cleaning without that kind of deal. So I segmented them and send them a different deal than the rest.
Of course I have learned how to create something that seems like a deal. I make more and they feel they got a deal.
Careful on those who say coupons commoditize and cheapen our service. Everybody likes to feel like they are getting a great value. I had a carpet cleaner at my house who did a Val-Pak type of coupon and he grossed $25,000 that month! He is also the best I have ever used.
Most who will call have never had a window cleaning. They may also be people who never thought they would hire that service, until that “deal” arrived… It happens to me over 100 times a year, at least.
Build the value up in the offer without cheapening the service.
If you get customers that will wait for a “special”, segment and give it to them… often.
This is what I love about fliers. It really allows you to experiment with different deals to a small segment of your target market. If it works, spread out to larger regions and if it tanks, it only tanks in a small neighborhood.
You also avoid the ‘coupon company’ image when you target a small market at a time with huge deals. Imagine putting an incredible deal in a YP ad. That ad would haunt you for at least a year.
That Yellow Page ad would only haunt you if it sucked.
Unlike neighborhood specific deals where we can offer a $ for the service, we can offer a [B]thing[/B] in the YP ad. Let alone, any deal in the YP would trump your competitors. Go look and tell me any “deal” any of them are offering.
The people lookin in the book have nothing in mind when choosing, give them a reason and it is an easy lock.
The YP Rep told me that it is against policy to offer a discount in your ad. They have ways of wording it though. He told me that he had a mechanic that was off the beatin path that wanted to advertise his going mechaniceshop rate. It was about 1/2 of the amount others were charging. The YP people are sleeping with all of their advertisers. They dont want to lose their clients because of an unfair advantage. The YP books around here have a coupon section in the back (of course for add’l fees).
CFP,
Aint that the truth. I love it when they break out those pie graphs on how many households get the book. Those stats may have some truth but you have to ask yourself how many of those folks will be going to my heading? Smoke and mirrors my friend, smoke and mirrors! As you know, I ran a good sized ad in my area last year and it did OK. I could have got a better ROI doing something else. We landed a few sweet commercial gigs from it. With the uncertain economy, I’m going to be doing something else in 08. I’m still in the book with my one liner. Year before last, I ran what they call a leader ad which only cost me $218.00 a month. When I said that I would like to go back to that ad to save a little $$ in 2008, they treated me like a second rate advertiser. They said that it was now $445.00 a month! Its hard to believe that I spent $8,316.00 in just the advertising with them in 2007 and got zero loyalty points for that. I was also told by a small competitor of theirs that if they dont upsell an ad, no commission. This person also told me that the yellow pages splits the ad price with the phone company. I was figuring out where my telephone bill should be every month this year and It should be in the neighborhood of $150.00 a month ( 3 lines). It was $840.00 a month last year. It will seem like chump change.
As a funny little extra story, I have these YP reps call about every 2 months with a “deal that is only available for 2 more weeks”. I ask what the deal is and it is the same deal I have been offered 7 times before.
They will call me a month later and say “are you sure you don’t want that deal, Friday is the deadline”… hmmm
Brilliant. I receive an email every few days from a printing-house with “48 hour”, “3-day”, or “1-day” sales.
Everything from “Presidents Day” to “Our Crazy, VIP Sales Event”
Some of it is Cheesy, but it demonstrates CFP’s point.
Make up promotions and ‘specials’ often, if you’ve found that clients are responsive to them. Many so-called ‘specials’ can be developed to be extremely profitable for you and a great deal for the client.
