You Have To Be Offering More Than They Pay For ….

Ever taken advantage of one of the cut price offers such as Groupon or similar?

You know the ones where you can get a $50 meal for $20 or a haircut for $10.

In fact I have been so impressed with some of these marketing offers that I actually bought quite a few as Christmas present this time and it means your nearest and dearest get a higher value present but it costs you less

Now, I have experienced both sides of these deals because I have also sold them as well as bought them and if you read my earlier post you can learn about pitfalls to avoid.

However, just this morning I became a 'customer' and with the experience I just had I decided to share my observations.

My voucher was for a cut price half hour massage, plus a manicure and pedicure.

• First of all rule number 1 of being a therapist (I should know I have been 1 for 17 years) – you always do a 'proper' consultation and get the client to sign it and date it.  Just to see that there are no reasons not to give a treatment and to see what the client is looking to get out of the treatment.  This morning I was asked just 2 questions, nothing was written down and nothing signed (ooh the insurance company could have a field day with that alone).  Whether the client is paying full price of cut price the rules are the same!

• When a treatment is billed as a 'half hour' then it need to last a 'half hour' – not 20 minutes as I got this morning.

• Hygiene – Clean towels per client and use of disposable couch roll.  No matter if the client is paying full or cut price again!

• The room needs to be warm – no one comes back to a cold salon.

• Manicure and pedicure requires nails to be filed, not simply shown the nail file.  Plus the file needs to be sanitised in front of the client and the towel the clients hands resting on covered with couch roll and be clean and dry (ughh!)

• The client needs to feel they are getting a full price treatment and experience it as such to entice them to return again soon bringing all their eager friends with them.  The client does not want to feel like a poor relation who is not truly welcome.

• Learn some marketing skills and offer them a discount when they return.

Cut price treatment customers need to have exactly service than full price ones, they need to be made ti feel extra special because if you can do this for cut price customers what do you do for full price ones?  No one wants to feel like the poor relation.

Going over and above clients expectations with delivery and service is what makes YOU special and stand out and it is what makes a difference between that customer coming back to you or to someone else.

8 Essential Tips For A Successful Groupon Promotion ….

The online world is awash with cut price offer sites and if you are not very careful your morning inbox can be flooded with lots of tempting cut price deals.

I am a huge fan of these and confess to have done much of my Christmas shopping using these great deals.

However, I also have experience of being a 'seller' using Groupon and after the reports in daily newspapers over the last 2 or 3 weeks I have decided to share a few helpful hints and tips with you just in case you too were considering running an offer yourselves.

• Groupon is NOT looking to take over your entire business capacity.  They look for the slack in your system so you need to know how many spare appointments you have on average per week/month or you need to know how many extra units you can produce without a great deal more expense/effort being required.  Groupon then simply multiply this weekly average by the number of weeks the offer is to run to get a total number of units to be sold.  Make sure you do not over estimate!

• Do not give over all your appointments to servicing these cut price ones.  Your full price customers have to come first as they are paying you and your bills.  if you had 10 spare appointments per week for Groupon then allocate 10 appointments per week and people will have to wait until an appointment is free.  Do not allow it to take over your life!

• Do not offer treatments that are expensive to do and use a lot of expensive products or do not offer very expensive products that you would make a huge loss on.  I offer Reflexology as the only equipment/product required is wipes and foot cream and my time.

• If Groupon oversell on your agreed number of vouchers then this is not your fault, but make sure you agree to a number at the start.

• Groupon will give you 50% of the offer price (the offer price is very very cut price from full price), and they recommend the offer price.  You will also have to pay VAT so you get less than 50% – so try and negotiate a slightly higher percentage than 50%. Bear in mind also that you only get paid when the customer rings to redeem the voucher, and believe you me there are a lot who do not do this and so in this case you get nothing and Groupon keeps it all.

• When a client/customer rings to either book the appointment or order the item get their codes immediately and redeem them online immediately.  Get the payment before they arrive for their appointment as Groupon pay you very quickly.  This way if they do not turn up or cancel within the time you ask you have been paid.

• Be very firm about any terms and conditions at the time of booking.  If you are a salon and have a 24 hour cancellation or change of appointment policy then make this clear at the time of booking – it is amazing how many clients think it is acceptable to simply not turn up and then expect to be able to rebook for a later date.

• Use the cut price offer to upsell other products.  If for instance the offer was for a Facial then when they call to book then offer a luxury Facial for £xx or a manicure added on for £xx.  Make sure you get email/phone numbers and put them onto a mailing list for future offers.  Give them a discount code for their next treatment.

When used correctly Groupon can be an excellent marketing tool.  When not used correctly Groupon can be a nightmare.

I would love to hear any good/bad experiences you have had using these sites …..so leave me some comments below

Marketing A Small Business – AKA … How To Slaughter Your Competition

Marketing a small business is not easy and small business owners are often at a disadvantage when it comes to getting marketing help and support.

Why?

Well they might be exceptional at planning events and weddings or making beautiful jewellery but when it come to small business marketing, online marketing and social networking skills they often have big knowledge gaps.

Not only that…… they simply do not have the money to spend on hiring a flashy professional marketing guru and have to make do with home made efforts to get themselves noticed.

Until now that is….

You see I know how hard it is being a small business owner and how hard it is to be the proverbial 'Jack of all trades'.

I have seen countless small business websites that their owners have paid hundreds of pounds for and yet they lack even the most basic SEO features and barely anyone gets to see them. (I have some real horror 'rip off stories' for another day)

So, I decided to do something about this……….

Introducing – SEO In Leeds brand new 'Hire Me' service

This is a totally customised service for small business owners where we get to teach you what ever it is you are wanting to learn.

You see I have got over 3 years experience as a top producing Internet Marketing consultant, so I have got the skills that YOU are looking to learn.

How to….

• Do Keyword research
• Set up Facebook Fanpages and create a special page to encourage 'Likers'
• How to create effective eyecatching short videos
• How to set up Twitter.com with customised themes
• How to create a Youtube channel
• How to create a wordpress blog
• What are links and how to create them (without these your site is going nowhere)
• …………………

So, how does this work?

Well quite simply you fill out the form below, I will give you a call and we discuss how to best get you to where you want to be.

I teach online using Skype and charge just for my time typically just £30 for up to 30 minutes – so this will save you hundreds of pounds in consultant fees and you will learn the skills you need to propel your business to the level you want it to be.

So…. fill in the form below and leave me some comments to tell me what you need help with and lets get your business moving on up.

Lessons In Life – Stop Sweating The Small Stuff

Hindsight is a wonderful teacher and in this case I really wish I had had the benefit of this last Friday.

You see we were going away for the weekend and you know how it is…..

You are just trying to get all those jobs done and get the car packed and check the kids have not forgotten anything (or you for that matter)

You rush around and make sure the neighbours have a key to feed that cats and rabbits

Then just as you do a last minute check around you realise one of the cats is upstairs where she should not be so…….

You chase her down because if not then she would have been trapped upstairs all weekend and well you can imagine the mess we would come home to.

You give her a kiss as you go out the door as she settles into her bed in the kitchen and off you go feeling very relieved to have averted a rather nasty mess to come home to on Sunday night.

However……..

By Monday night we were bitterly regretting finding her upstairs on Friday

Why?

Well, if she had been left upstairs making a mess all weekend then she would still be alive (we would be hopping mad I am pretty sure of that, but at least we would have still got her to snuggle and to love)

You see she got killed on our lane on Saturday night because she was able to be outside.

The lesson we learned is maybe we should not get so wrapped up in the small stuff and small mess – no matter how mad it might make you because you never know what other bigger more horrible mess might have been created.

RIP Jemima … we loved you xxxxxx

Come On Brussels Airlines – Time To Play fair!

Customer service – or rather great customer service is what will define you as a good or bad company.

So, Brussels Airlines take note of these words………..

I flew via Brussels to Naples back in July.  I flew on a Sunday to return Friday morning.

On arrival at Naples Sunday evening my luggage had not arrived – so after the usual form filling at Naples airport I then journied onto Sorrento minus my suitcase and clothes.  I was advised that my case would more than likely be with me within 24 hours and was given a reference number to check it's status online.

I checked that status regularly as did the hotel staff at the Hilton Hotel in Sorrento – several times per day (no phone contact is possible just an online status).  Every day it was just the same – luggage still not located!

So, I had to go shopping – all very inconvenient to me as I was attending a conference so not only was I without my clothes I actually had to find time to go shopping for more.

Thursday arrived and still no sign of my case having been found – So…… I now had to go out and buy a suitcase to get my new stuff home the following morning how else was I expected to do this?

Thursday teatime – again an online check and the status this time was – due for delivery (it had been updated online just 1 minute before the hotel staff checked) so I went to my room with a skip and a hop and opened my room door to find …………….. my case already delivered

All's well that ends well!

Well no not quite…… You see I had a claim to make for the new clothes and case I had to buy.

Simple enough one might hope!

No chance!

You see with Brussels Airlines you have to goto their website and submit an online form to their customer service department – they say they will get back to you within 48 hours.  Well, I submitted several of these back in July and am still awaiting a response.

So, I wrote to them and submitted my receipts for reimbursement and eventually got an email back asking for the receipts for the clothes but not the case!

Excuse me Brussels Airlines – I sent you all you needed weeks ago including the receipt for the case – read my account above this and you might understand that I had no indication of my things going to be returned to me until they arrived the night before I was due to fly home – I had to buy a case to get my new stuff home!

It is now mid September and I have had no written response to my letters and no cheque for the 200+ Euros they now owe me.

It was through no fault of mine that my luggage went awol, I have spent hours of my time chasing a refund you should have issued weeks ago and i am now claiming for my time and effort in doing this so suddenly the 200+ Euros is now 400 to cover my time and other expenses!

I would appreciate a prompt response and a prompt refund thank you!