Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Halliday on July 11, 2014, 07:22:54 am
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Do you think customer don't care about the technicalities of the cleaning or if we use a portable/truckmount/bonnets....... all they want is clean carpets?
Or do you think they are thirsty for knowledge about what they are getting for their money?
I'm just redesigning my leaflet and I'm think of filling one side with very detailed technical information about how we clean, explaining how reverse osmosis water leaves the carpet with zero chemicals so no re-soiling etc.
if The customer knew they had a choice, they can have a cocktail of chemicals left in thier carpets or 100% chemical free then they would choose chemical free.......but unless they are given the information they can't choose
I was thinking of using the heading..... 'THE BORING TECHNICAL INFORMATION OTHER CARPET CLEANER DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW'
I have some very intelligent customers who even though are retired they were teachers and engineers, owned their own business...... They are used to technical information.
I can see how a mother on benefits is not interested ( but she's not the customer I get)
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I think some perspective clients would be interested in this information but I think there are people out there that just don't care. Personally I keep the information on my flyers quite brief I feel it's easier to explain the benefits of my service and solutions over other cleaners face to face of phone to phone.
I just don't think a long drawn out flyer will hold there attention long enough.
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TBH I think they just want them cleaned as well as possible, with a person they trust with whatever machinery they use, for a fair price.
I've done all sorts of things stating what I use etc, but I believe that they see a carpet cleaner advert, then its up to us to sell ourselves, and our cleaning procedures.
Ive come to the conclusion on advertising that "Less is More".
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They just want clean carpets. The amount of jobs I do where they say the last guy was overload on how big his machine wss. Clean and dry is all they want.
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Some cleaners are just over the top with truck mount this and encap that. The avarege joe just wants a professional service with clean carpets at the end of it.
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Mike. without testing I cannot be sure but I suspect the word "boring" will kill it. A better headline could make a big difference.
I've been doing a lot of website testing lately and the evidence suggests that interested people will read every word. You just have to accept that "interested" may only mean a couple out of every hundred dropped. Then again, for "cold" leafletting, that's to be expected.
I presume one side will be for "skimmers" and the other side this detailed approach?
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Not like Mike to contradict him self is it! You confuse me! ;D
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I think it has to be worded correctly but if you look at a newspaper see how it is sub headlined to break it up, you can get the information across but not in long paragraphs it needs to be more bite sized.
Shaun
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Mike,
I reckon an area of your flyer dedicated to technical information is worth considering, but probably not a full side.
I also believe talking about your super portable / truckmount can be beneficial if approached correctly, i.e telling them about the benefits of your machinery in order to help them.
Imagine a plumber talking about his super new blow torch, you wouldn't be at all interested, but, if this 'new torch' guaranteed pipes never leaked, only used lead free solder (more healthy) gave a 5 year guarantee on all his work, you may see the reasons to use him slightly more.
Also i have no idea if customers are thirsty for knowledge, (would you be?) however if your flyers 'extra information' sets you apart from any competition it can only be a good thing.
Daren
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If I was looking at that I would say there is a reason 'other carpet cleaners dont want you to know' and its because its boring.
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I used to leave a leaflet with all the technicalities with my quote after a survey.
My theory being that normally it would be the lady of the house I was selling "the dream" to.
The leaflet would be to help her in gaining approval from the finance department (Husband) by showing them "The Science Bit".
I still do exactly the same thing on commercial projects as I need them to buy into the maintenance concept for the benefit of the building and staff at the Building Manager level but then have to give them the info to sell this to Finance by the way of life cycle costings and future saving.
If you look at TV advertising these days for cleaning product and health product etc they all get more technical than they used to. Dove Soap with its pH papers is still remembered by a lot of people.
In fact that could be a good test. Show them a pH test from a clean with product x using a small machine and the same with a TM and your RO water rinse.
How were you thinking of getting that info out to the customer Mike?
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I think it has to be worded correctly but if you look at a newspaper see how it is sub headlined to break it up, you can get the information across but not in long paragraphs it needs to be more bite sized.
Shaun
Its called dual reader path and worth looking into further for those that don't know about it as its a really handy way to structure websites and any long copy.
I know my Mrs reads the headings and if it grabs her attention she says have a read of that and tell me what you think. She knows I will read every last word, then research anything that jumps out and then give her an opinion. (everbody knows what a geek I am) Thing is its really easy for people to pick up a tablet or phone and search "benefits of cleaning with RO water"
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The technicalities of your machinery is one consideration but also you can offer why it will 'fix' their carpet/upholstery problem, customers may be interested why you have better equipment but you sometimes have to spell it out to them ie more power will rinse the greasy traffic lanes or will dry carpets far faster.
Shaun
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If you go to a mechanic, most of the time you are not interested in the technicalities of what they will do or the tools they will use, but are interested in if they are skilled / trained, insured, have the facilites and can guarantee you the work and also your car will be fixed & lovely to drive again!
If you were that interested in the details you would probably just do it yourself !
Steve
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I dont think anyone cares about all the gubbins, they dont show you the machinery that makes the soap on the adverts only the benefit and wow how patronising to assume the little women will only want the clean while the man reads the technical bit then coughs up, I suppose she waits at home with his pipe and slippers then prepares dinner before placing all that science stuff before him.I guess you only work for middle aged married couples then. ;D
Let me tell you how we used to get this stuff over to the customer and the neighbours, its a bit of a twist on five around they goes further afield.
We would call on Mrs Jones at no25 to clean her carpets in the normal fashion, we would then put through the letters boxes of 'every' home in the street a post card with words to the effect;
WARNING!!
Our super powerful carpet cleaning machine is being operated by our exceptionally professional cleaning technicians at No 25.
If we are loud then we apologise but we need all that power to get the best possible results, bear with us, with all that power it will not take too long.
Feel free to pop along to see us in action or just for a chat about what we can do for you, while we are here we would love to pop in and give you a free no obligation quote.
Can not remember the exact wording but you get the gist of it and this really worked for us, they loved it, the post card was a bit quirky with a funny picture (remember the elephant) and once you 'drew' their attention to the noise and that you were there it brought about the interest.No need for technical gumph they get it that its powerful. ;)
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It's a tough question :-\
I can understand people just wanting clean carpets but I can't help thinking if they are wanting their carpets cleaned then they will want to know the technical stuff.
If you wanted hot water coming out of the taps would you just tell the plumber "we want hot water"
If the plumber turned around and said......." the best way to give you hot water is......"
Would you interrupt him and say "I don't care how you do it, just give me hot water" or would you listen to him.
I can have a nice fluffy leaflet on one side that catches the interest,then the back heavy with information, if they are convinced with the nice side great but if they want to know more it's there for them.
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Out of politness you not interupt him but you would be thinking to yourself 'just get on with it'.
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Former air wing commander Hopkins will read every last word if interested he will then ask for a formal quotation a firm shake of your hand whilst looking straight in your eyes then looking at the state of your shoes, that the kind of customer mike is after.
Shaun
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I dont think anyone cares about all the gubbins, they dont show you the machinery that makes the soap on the adverts only the benefit and wow how patronising to assume the little women will only like the clean while the man reads the technical bit then coughs up, I suppose she waits at home with his pipe and slippers then prepares dinner before placing all that science stuff before him.I guess you only work for middle aged married couples then. ;D
Actually, yes. Exactly that!
It is that kind of area I worked in.
Officers and lecturers, Retired RAF Officers, Businessmen and Uni Professors, out on the golf course (or in the club) all day while wife prepares the dinner etc etc.
Exactly the type of customers you want.
Nice homes, nice (well affluent) people, disposable income and appreciate for a good service (and good shoes), similar friends and good referrers.
We certainly did alright when we sold off that part of the business and so did the guy who bought it.
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It has been said the more you tell the mor you sell. You have been droping leaflets for years. Positioning Yourself as the EXPERT can do no harm , but unless you have been kidding us all these years your leaflets pull so why change aa that works for you. If you need more customers just increase number of leaflets you put out
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ian my present leaflet does work well, and I don't need more customers..... but I want them to spend more money :D :D so I need to give them a reason to justify spending more money.
they need a reason to spend an extra £40 over ABC cleaners who advertise rooms for £35 so unless I educate them about the difference why would they pay more?
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I think times have changed alot with the internet, people havent got the patience or time to read much information, once they see the things they like they will phone you.
When people get my number from the internet they often say they didnt even click through to the webiste just rang the number on adwords or the map !
People want stuff done quick with not too much interuption in their life !
Many website developers will tell you to keep the website simple without too much info on the home page, as they just want to see the phone number and ring it !
Its the type of world we live in now !
Steve
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Many website developers will tell you to keep the website simple without too much info on the home page,
That's why "most" website developers produce stuff that does not work. They have certainly never written any sales copy that works and most don't even track results. Meanwhile, most experienced (successful) marketers sell through one hour + webinars or Google Hangouts.
A friend of a friend has wasted loads of money on a "marketing expert" (who it turns out, is just someone with a graphic design degree).
They have spent ages on the logo but guess what? No sales off the website or the newspaper ads (a blown up version of the business card - basically a bigger logo!). Nearly all her business is coming off a sandwich board outside her salon! The expert cloen has told her to not expect much until people get used to the logo.
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Yeah i was talking about the "succesful " ones ;D
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I have always put a certain amount of detail on flyers, websites etc. You would be surprised at the amount of people that do read it. If you are at the bottom end of the market then price is a more important consideration.
People with expensive and delicate furnishing are concerned about who and what invades their privacy. Detail is something that can be read by those that want it and overlooked by those that do nt.
Peter
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Just have two leaflets Mike, one for the more affluent looking houses and one for the run of the mills. ;D
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Hey Mike I have a totally different take on this.
You say you have enough customers, you just want them to spend more.
Look at your twenty best clients and put in your leaflet who you want to attract based on them. You have the luxury to experiment with this, others are too poor/afraid. It's amazing how this works compared to grovelling and competing.
Also mentally you are trying to justify what you charge or are going to charge to yourself not them. If that wasn't the case you wouldn't be saying I don't need more customers. Just do it anyway. The worst thing that could happen is you have a relatively bad month, but I suspect you want to keep improving and making more per hour more easily which requires some experimentation and doing something a bit beyond your comfort zone..
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If Mike didn't need more customers then he wouldn't need to leaflet in the first place, surely?
It is true that some people are interested in the technicalities, but they are only a tiny minority and you risk putting the majority off by trying to blind them with science, when all they actuall want is their carpet cleaned, albeit to the highest standards, minus the meaningless blurb.
Simon
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Simon You did'nt understand my initial answer to Ian, I don't need more customers than my leaflet already produces. I just want the people who already respond to spend more money
You asked for an example of a reminder card why? Don't they just remember you and call when their carpets require cleaning? Many people question my leafleting because they thinks it's just about finding new customers.....they don't understand the whole concept.
everyone of my existing customers receive my leaflet every month, it acts as a reminder card But if I mentioned sending out reminder cards every month I would be applauded for my marketing savvy, but I spend less on leaflet delivery than it would in the cost of stamps to contact all my existing customers and my leaflet also brings in new customers.
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Mike what are you actually asking?
Do you want to pre warn customers that you are more expensive than others or re you trying to sell more on the sale?
Shaun
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Interesting customer retention strategy... send a standard sales leaflet to strangers and hope some customers get it? ;D
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Interesting customer retention strategy... send a standard sales leaflet to strangers and hope some customers get it? ;D
Or is it the exact opposite ? Send a leaflet to customers and let strangers get it as well :D
Shaun, I believe customers who have decided they want a carpet cleaner are hungry for information, I have a complete A5 side to play with, the opposite side is a standard leaflet and they can stop there .......but if I can give them information to help them make an informed choice then why not
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The technical blurb has to be for a reason its there to add sizzle you don't want to aimlessly spout out facts as the customer will get bored it has to have a place in the story line.
If I were in your shoes with the set up you have and the man power I'd go for a multi discount on the blurb side there's more chance of them reading it.
Shaun
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Or is it the exact opposite ? Send a leaflet to customers and let strangers get it as well.
So are the majority of people you are leafleting every month existing customers, if so that's one hell of an expensive way of keeping in touch ???
Simon
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There's more too it than that, it's about brand and area, if you leaflet with the same well presented piece time and time again people will get used to it as well as it will become a comfort blanket they'll feel as though they can depend on you.
Shaun
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Sorry Shaun, that's rubbish.
People aren't looking for a comfort blanket in the form of a carpet cleaning leaflet, where did you get that pearl of wisdom from? ;D
Simon
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If you read marketing books as well as trying the ideas out and read mikes posts you'll understand what he's trying to do is make him the one stop call for carpet cleaning, franklins in sheffield did something similar years ago everyone in a particular area would only call them as they had in theory made themselves the authority in cleaning is was named 'the franklins experience', price wasn't an issue customers just called for the service.
Shaun
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For every thousand leaflets dropped, how many of that thousand are going to existing customers?
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I would say that the number increases every month.
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More than the 100% that some sort of relationship based marketing would reach?
Hector, do you keep in contact (on a personal level) with you hypnosis clients or do you just keep sending them sales leaflets?
ps; and don't say you programmed them to remain customers ;D
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If hypnotism is like going to the physio it'll be a few appointments to diagnose and fix, if the fix is good people remember that as it's a personal or health thing that stays in the subliminal mind I use the same physio but I know a few through cleaning their carpets but I go back to the one that fixed my first problem.
Shaun
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Huh ???
The point being?
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For every thousand leaflets dropped, how many of that thousand are going to existing customers?
Garry that's a good question and I've never really worked it out, but I read your question this morning and have been thinking about it while I was doing our first jobs.
Here are some examples, we leaflet Cottingham every month which has 5k homes, we have 40ish customer in there so every month those 40 customers receive our leaflets
Skidby has 500 homes we have 12 customers there those 12 get a monthly leaflet
We have 100s of customers in Beverley they get a leaflet every 5-6 weeks.
This is going slightly of topic (as we were talking about whether it's worth giving customers technical information)
All I do is leaflets, I don't do reminder cards as they are probably the least effective & costliest way to contact existing customers, you could say my leaflet is not a good way of keeping in touch with existing customers but it's better than doing nothing and it's consistently done plus it's a by product of our marketing not its chief aim.
It doesn't matter if it's not how anyone else runs their business it works very effectively for me.
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Mike, your last comment is probably the most relevant. If it works for you, then fine.
I was looking at it from the point of view of relationships. Once someone becomes a customer then that relationship is very different from that of a prospective buyer. They effectively, become a "real" person - the sort of person that you would write a nice letter to.
Amazon takes this much further by giving you personalised recommendations every time you go online. You would need a segmented customer list to pull this off but it might be worth it long term, especially with those high paying customers. This is what Wynn was getting at on a previous page.
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Actually...
Why not use one side for new customers and the other for existing ones (you could put the technical stuff here... "customers' questions answered" etc)? Make that side into a mini newsletter.
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Mike
Traffic, traffic traffic, Hits, hits, hits
As I keep saying any content that people are searching for worldwide will help your site seo that in turns give your site authority and that will help your local search.
what are people searching for? adwords will tell you that. below are some post names on one of my blogs, these are real keywords that people search for. to get traffic you need to provide content that matches these type of keywords. you cant know what people in your local area search for, but google never suggests "carpet cleaning town" apart from london or other big city putting all your eggs in the towns names means that your missing out all the many that are being used.
Marketing is about meeting a need and you have tools that tell you what that need is. adwords is the tool for finding out what people are searching for, why do you think google is withholding keywords in searches? because information is worth money, and giving that information to the SEO industry does not help google.
On the subject of needs just look at any carpet cleaning product range, again a list of answers to problems that people have. content about these problems will also help. prochem does not make all those products for fun. just think about this for a moment please,
products are our tools but if you dont have the jobs for those tools your never going to use them. In turn people have say a red wine spillage or urine spot. what are they going to search for? Most carpet cleaners site are very narrow in their message.
SEO is not always about the direct effect it has on your site but the indirect. worldwide search is the indirect way to help local in markets like ours. with keywords you have silos that are related words so carpet cleaning is sub to carpet and all the words below that are what google tells you in adwords. Its our group of keywords. google need to know what relates to what and this is how it does it. why? for ranking the site
https://plus.google.com/101557752785793986239/posts/9oBRfVHyM8J
PS dont confuse selling with marketing. both have a cost and you should always know that cost. I love the term"buying customers" its does not really mater how much or little selling or marketing you do its about the cost of each customer or prospect. below are my real costs
http://www.cleanonomics.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/cost-of-a-customer/
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Mike
here is what google looks at as our family of keywords.
http://www.chelmsford.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/carpet-cleaning/carpet-cleaning/ (you can scroll left to right and down)
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Have you been on the happy juice Ian? ;D
How does that apply to leaflets?
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Hi Mike others might have said this already. But it looks quite simple . Do a newsletter or Information leaflet and spend a week after finnishing your jobs hand delivering them to your customer base.
Use your other leaflets for pulling new customers.
Might seem a lot of work but Kleeneze Agents work on dropping cats off to existing customers for a £10 sale You are looking for £95 plus.
Alternatively you could just buy some stamps .
If you plan it right you could send to customers who did not buy in last 6 week cycle say 2 or 3 weeks before standard leaflet drop is due to hit doormat
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When do you guys get time to actually clean carpets!!
Mark
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Have you not got a smart phone mark?
Pays to have one and keep up with the boring bits of life!
Shaun
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Me i m in Semi retirement living in the Sun