[wayne zabel]

I always send out 12 montly reminders to old customers and do get repeats from this.

Ive now been CC 28 months with 20 months full time,Im thinking about sending letters out to those that never took up the option of a repeat clean after 12 months.

How would you word such a letter?Is it best to have it as a sort of general news letter just to remind them of who you are and my number or would you word it that its now 18/24 months since we cleaned your carpets ect and they will need cleaning again.

Just trying to get an idea of wording a second letter.Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks

Wayne

[JandS]

Wayne

You have e mail.   

John

[Jim_77]

A lot of them will have forgotten your name and what your company is called.  Scary but true.

Also, a lot will have wanted something doing a fair while back now, thought "Oh what was that guy's name?" and got the YP out because they can't find your receipt or anything... rang who they thought, but it wasn't you... and just got that other firm round instead.  Now that other firm is their carpet cleaner.

12 months is wayyyyy too long if they have only been a customer of yours once in the last year or two - they will have forgotten you.  You need to be sending out a mail shot every 3 months at least, to cement the fact in their minds that YOU are THEIR carpet cleaner.  Filter the recipients so you don't mail to anyone who's had a job done within the last few months, no point really and helps cut the mailing costs down a bit.

I am now filtering off the other end of my list, set a cut off point of year 2000 as it's costing too much to send mail to people that are dead or moved away!  Not everyone puts misdirected mail back in the post so you know not to send it any more which doesn't help, but if you do get any returned make sure you exclude them from any further mail shots.

I'm guilty of getting complacent - I have had the same problem of people forgetting who I am because I don't get back in touch soon enough (as if you could ever forget a colour combination as disgusting as canary yellow and turquoise!).  Problem is, there's a lot of my customers who've been using the business from way back before I was around, so they simply don't go anywhere else and just reach for my number... I forget sometimes I still have to work for new customers and retain them!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I only do 3 years of database after that I find it not cost effective but I only do them once a year with no offers it is a reminder only, up take I get is the same as when I used offers but the average spend is higher and I also don't get the "got any offers on" brigade, I remember Craig Partridge saying a few years ago that he got rid of offers all together and business got better for it and I believe it does.

Shaun

[Warren Aldridge]

Not cost effective for me. I can find new business cheaper going by database size and postage fees

[Richard Joyce]

If you don't have cleaners mate then get it as it makes sending out letters so easy and brings down the time which is half the battle

[Ian Gourlay]

I only do 3 years of database after that I find it not cost effective but I only do them once a year with no offers it is a reminder only, up take I get is the same as when I used offers but the average spend is higher and I also don't get the "got any offers on" brigade, I remember Craig Partridge saying a few years ago that he got rid of offers all together and business got better for it and I believe it does.

Shaun

Shuan you used to recon Newsletters were your way of filling your diary and you did it on a regular basis

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Use  a different way as newsletters were time consuming and expensive also IMO you can give too much money away.

Shaun

[Paul Moss]

Yer Shauns way is a begging letter to his customers  its much quicker and shorter 

[Kev Loomes]

Hi Wayne

Any sort of contact is good - its the non contact that does the damage to a CC business. I would send the ones who havent used you for 12 months a letter, and also the ones who havent used you for 18 months at the same time.

Keep getting in to a cycle of sending the ones who havent used you for a set period of time i.e. 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 yrs, etc etc all the way up to 5yrs. This way your clients who need reminding will get reminder letters - every 6 months. If they havent responded after 5yrs (of getting a letter every 6 months) then this usually means they dont want to use you. But dont give up on this, we have clients coming back after 5 or 6yrs, even though we gave up sending them reminder letters.

Remember, even existing clients like an offer (because you 'value' /want to look after them) - but this isnt the most critical part, the actual contact is.

As an example, on this months letter we got back £2,000.00, which isnt unusual and is about average. So its a real no brainer sending them out every month. Obviously this is only one part of our marketing income - there is the internet, van, associated trades, retailers, referrals etc etc etc.

This is the important bit - you are not sending out to the SAME people every month (only the ones who havent used you for a set period of time - which changes every month as time revolves forward obviously!). So you always have different clients your sending to in between the 6 monthly contacts.

Sorry if the above sounds confusing - it does to me! But its a very straightforward easy process.

This is what we sent: http://clean-pro.co.uk/May_Letter.jpg Ok its not the most exciting or even different thing, but its...the contact that counts! Ignore the date as it is a screenshot of Word and the date has auto updated on opening.

Here is a shortish video on why marketing to existing clients is so important - if you havent guessed already!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG9_IRAAk60 This is not an advert for cleaners mate by the way.

[Craigp]

Kevin, is that example an email or a letter?

[Kev Loomes]

Its just a letter Craig - a screenshot of May's Word doc used.

Email merging is something that can be done - but not all clients have e mail addresses! We will actually have a merge to mobile soon - a great alternative to market this way in bulk too Also great for texting clients independently.

[Craigp]

I see they are full colour, do you print off on a home printer? I think mine would take ages printing them if it was more than 10 also colour cartridge would go quick..

[Kev Loomes]

Craig, colour laser printers are cheaper now than they have ever been

Just quickly, our system also mail merges to a file - so you dont have to actually print them yourself if you dont want to. You can use the file and manually sync it up to docmail (http://www.cfhdocmail.com/) who can do it all for you

[Craigp]

Thanks Kevin

Back end marketing is definitely an area I've neglected, every Jan/Feb I think about it.

It's on my to do list!

[Craigp]

I only do 3 years of database after that I find it not cost effective but I only do them once a year with no offers it is a reminder only, up take I get is the same as when I used offers but the average spend is higher and I also don't get the "got any offers on" brigade, I remember Craig Partridge saying a few years ago that he got rid of offers all together and business got better for it and I believe it does.

Shaun

Good memory Shaun! Actually I remember the discussion too. 

[Steven Lawrence]

Its just a letter Craig - a screenshot of May's Word doc used.

Email merging is something that can be done - but not all clients have e mail addresses! We will actually have a merge to mobile soon - a great alternative to market this way in bulk too Also great for texting clients independently.

Most looking forward to this!!