THE SECRETS TO SURVIVING A SLOWDOWN PART 1
s NOTE: These two articles are reprinted here from The Serviceroundtables Comanche Marketing Newsletter. Are we really heading for a recession? The media...
Plot Your Effort and Track Your Results
A service company in Southern California decided to embark on a massive door hanger campaign in key communities. To keep things straight and ensure he didn't miss any streets, the owner bought a large map of the area and had it dry mounted at a local framing shop. As each street was canvassed, he highlighted the street on his map. If a street was hit a second time, the map was highlighted with a thicker line....
Go Beyond Benefits
One of the newest marketing approaches (at least, new in that it's becoming recognized in the mainstream) is experiences. This goes beyond features, beyond benefits. Experiences. People pay a premium for the right experience. People recall experiences. The sharper, more vivid, more distinctive the experience, the greater the recall. Of course, this can work for you or against you....
The Rant: This Industry Has Gone a SEER Too Far
The HVAC industry did a magnificent job adjusting to the 13-SEER mandate. But it doesn’t change the fact it was a stupid regulation imposed on the public because not enough consumers were buying 13-SEER air conditioners. Too many people looked at the installed and energy costs, and concluded that 10 SEER was a better deal....
Don't Send Your Tech Out In The Field Without Any Tools
You would consider it the height of insanity to send an untrained, ill-prepared service technician out on a call without any tools. The only thing crazier would be expecting him to solve the customer's problem. Yet, service companies do it all the time. They don't send the technician out ill-prepared technically, just ill-prepared to answer customer questions about new services and products....
Encourage Your Employees Spread the Word
Do your employees let the world know where they work? Probably not. And yet, they encounter people everyday that might be candidates for your products and services. Not only are they candidates, they're highly attractive prospects if — and I stress the word, if — they know that your employee works for a company who's services they might need....
Copy the Automakers ... Prepare an Owner's Handbok
Automakers provide them. Appliance manufacturers provide them. But seldom do service companies provide an owner's handbook or manual. Why not?...
California to Repeal the Laws of Physics
California is moving towards a mandate for zero net energy for residential new construction by 2020. Zero net energy means the home cannot consume more...
People Judge the Intangible by theTangible
A "service" is consumed at the time it's purchased. It can't be picked up and examined like a tool in the hardware store. You can't kick the tires of a service. To try it is to buy it. As a result, consumers look for signals that indicate what kind of service they will receive. Surprisingly, they also judge the quality of the service by similar tangibles. ...
Just Buy The Customer
One of the simplest ways to acquire new customers is to buy them from your competition. In other words, buy your competition. It doesn't have to be that difficult, especially if you target small operations. ...
Give Something Back with this Low Cost Promotion
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, people are in a generous mood. People think more about others this time of the year. Charitable opportunities proliferate, but so do needs....
A Little Recognition Goes a Long Way
Everyone's heard of the marketing mix. It's the four "P's" of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place (or distribution). The marketing mix applies to manufacturing companies. As a service company, you've got to add at least one more "P" — People. People are an intricate part of a service company's marketing mix....
Exploiting Environmental Hysteria for Fun & Profit
In his keynote speech at HVAC Comfortech 2006, Contracting Business Residential Contractor of the Year Steve Miles declared, “As a person in the air conditioning business, I’m all in favor of global warming, but I don’t know if we’re causing it.”...
Solve the Customer's Problem
p align="left" class="style5"Sometimes your customers may want something that you don't provide. While there's merit in understanding your business and...
Hurry! There's Still Time to Give Thanks
p class="style5"Despite your best intentions, you missed sending out Thanksgiving cards to your customers. Heck, it's hard enough to get cards out for...
Don't Lie to the Customer
p class="style5" Sometimes we hesitate to tell our customers news they don't want to hear. We think they might not like us or they might not do business...
The First Man of HVAC
img src="/images/archive/70967therant010_00000046377.jpg" width="142" height="200" border="0" align="right"October 3, 2007 marks the 205th anniversary...
Empower Your Front Line
p class="style5" When a customer calls you with a problem, the immediate focus should be on the customer and the problem, rather than company policy....
Quadruple Your Radio Recognition for Next to Nothing
p class="style4"Trivia buffs know that the first video MTV aired when it began broadcasting more than two decades ago was based on the song "Video Killed...
Answer The Phone!!!
p class="style3" There's nothing worse than spending a pot of money to attract new customers, only to lose them because they can't reach you when they...
To Put Your Customers First, Put Them Second
p class="style4" Strange as it may sound, one of the best strategies you can have for putting customers first is keeping them in second place. Second...
Don't Underestimate the Power of Women
p class="style1" Frankly, most service professions have far too few women. Part of it results from women avoiding the field. But part if it results from...
Shout Your High Prices From The Rooftops
p class="style1" Are you high-priced, but a little sheepish about proclaiming it? Maybe you shouldn't be. Maybe you should stake out your position and...
Twelve Ways To Benefit from HVAC Comfortech
HVAC Comfortech 2007 is almost here. If you have not made plans to attend, you should. It is, hand down, the best educational and business building opportunity in the industry. ...
Free The Slaves
There's a dirty little secret in the industry. Worse than thirdworld, low-pay sweatshops, we have no pay contractor shops. There's a class of employees...
