[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

How many of you do this? Whats the frequency? Every 6 months or so?

But mostly whats the success rate?

Cheers
John

[Ian Gourlay]

We used to Cold Call for new Customers and it actually worked, but unfortuantley being a law abiding kind of person and the hazzle of doing it legally and not being able to reach potential Good Customers as they had registered with TPS  we droped it.

On exsisting customers if they have given you their number you may be OK but if you want to be sure ask TPS

Will it work Yes

Results until you try you do not know.

I would send letter with Special OFFER and then follow up

[clinton]

Hi john

I would send a letter and then maybe follow up as ian said.

I do know roger (dr carpet )does some sort of phoning his clients up so he might be able to tell you more

Cheers and good luck

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Hiya

Well the reason Im asking is that Im going over to http://www.talktalk.co.uk/ where they do broadband (up to 40GB per month), free local calls 24/7 and after 6pm and weekends free national calls all for £6.99 per month (plus your line rental that is cheaper than BT). Signed up yesterday as Sky capped my downloading and getting really bad speeds!

Anyway as Ill be getting free local calls during the day i thought Id use the opportunity to contact some old customers as its cheaper than postage!

Thanks for the replies guys!

John

[Nigel_W]

I am emailing or texting mine at a regular intervals with great success. When I do a job I decide that day when I will contact the client again. This could be anything from 1 day to 2 years in the future depending on the opportunities available. This is logged on my computer system and every day my computer system prompts me with a small list of people whose reminder time is today.

 I treat it as a simple reminder and do not follow up again until 3 to 6 months later, if I do not get a response.

Look upon it as providing a good service but make sure that you don't overstep the mark. I email  or txt something along the lines of :-

Dear ..........

Happy New Year. I hope that you and the family are well.

I notice from our records that it was September 2008 when  we gave the apartment carpets a full clean. This is just a courtesy email to see if you feel the carpets are ready for sprucing up in the near future. Let me know if you need an appointment..........

My diary is pretty much full for the next 5 weeks which I put down to the success of this system.


You have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Good luck

Nigel
www.designcare.co.uk

[Len Gribble]

Nigel

Can I copy and paste I have a similar system birthday 

Sir Francis Drake the privateer Len 

[clinton]

Nigel

Very impressive web site by the way.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

The best thing about doing it electronically is that you could run it on autopilot providing you input the data, you can't beat the personal touch and phoning them will yield the greater success as you are putting them on the spot but I am talking generally as clients may not be in or hard to get hold of etc.

Nice idea Nigel, keep intouch however you feel and keep the diary full.

Shaun

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Clinton's right. I do do something to Nigel.

It's all very low key-in fact sometimes I think the clients think I've just rung up for a chat. It is a cheap and efficient way of "stroking" those customers you want to do repeat work for.

You've got to have the confidence to do it though.

Roger

[Jason Ryan]

What computer system do you guys use if you dont mind me asking.

Cheers

[Nigel_W]

Jason,

I use Javelin CRM integrated with Xero Accounting. This solution would be overkill for most small carpet cleaning businesses.

 I think Carpet cleaners mate  http://www.carpetcleaningsoftware.co.uk/   is the probably the best thing for small carpet cleaning businesses. Designed by a carpet cleaner for carpet cleaners.

Nigel
www.designcare.co.uk

[Joe H]

and just to add - that software Nigel has mentioned has been brought to the market by one of those heavily involved in the CLEAN association.

[Jason Ryan]

Thanks 

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

I'm moving my diary system over from Outlook to Cleaners Mate for ease of integration with my database but Outlook is fine by itself.

Roger

[Matt Lindus]

Stop struggling and get your arses to collage in September.

You'll run out of life if your not carefull!

Matt

[Mark Lawrence]

and just to add - that software Nigel has mentioned has been brought to the market by one of those heavily involved in the CLEAN association.

Heard you use cleaners mate joe - is that right? how you finding it?

Very happy with mine 

Mark

[Joe H]

Yes I got it Nov - Dec last year so not had it long.
Very easy to put the info in - client database.
Easy to create invoice and it numbers sequentially.

Mail merge is very good, you tell it what prameters you want to use ie between Jan 09 to July 09 and it comes up with all your clients in that period and you can send them a reminder letter.

You also get about a dozen template letters that you can use as is, or change thro MS Word.

Its all easy peasy except for the time it takes to put all the info in from your past records, although if they are computerised you may be able to import them. Mine were in a diary or on cards so it was the long slog.

It also analises certain things but I have not gone into that yet.

£215 for the basic software that does all the above and probably a lot more.
If you want a diary as well then its a total of £245 ish.

[Kingsley Wright]

Definitely impressed by how methodical Nigel W is. Wish I'd done that when I first started CC - would certainly have retained more custom by now.

I wrote to about 120 of my customers in the run up to Christmas and got four jobs from it as a result. 

That was worth doing, in my opinion.

Two of those customers told me that they'd been wanting to have their carpets cleaned for a while, but couldn't remember my name or phone number 

So from now on customers will be getting 'free' spotter bottles with my phone number on them !

King