[andy east sussex]

every job i do come up great 99% the time and happy customers but when i write to them i never get a hit from it i dunno what im doing wrong but just dont get alot of repeat business not sure what else i can do to guantee the return. anyone else have that problem ?

[TN Cleaning Services Ltd]

Are you talking about domestic jobs?

[andy east sussex]

ye sorry domestic work

[The TACCA Scrutineer]

Are you putting an incentive on your letter to call you again, like call before such en such a date and get 10% off!

Or refer a friend and get a carpet cleaned free!

It's ok sending them a reminder/sales letter but you need to get them to call you by offering them something??

[wynne jones]

What time period between contacting and doing work are you talking about?

[Simon Gerrard]

How long have you been going?
How do you get the majority of your customers, advertising wise?

Simon

[andy east sussex]

i send them either a discount or voucher at six month intervals and we get our work from leaflets and weve been going 8 years

[Simon Gerrard]

I thought you were going to say leaflets. That leaves you vulnerable to your customers being leafleted by your competitors and your customers becoming used the the various offers that come through the door on a regular basis, making them a lot less loyal, hence your problem, I'd suggest.

Simon

[*Hector*]

I would say that six months is too soon an interval... and when they do want them cleaned again the offer that you have put out will have expired, and they will just go with the next leaflet as Simon suggested.

[andy east sussex]

since october have been doing key rings i dont mind saying what i do just trying to make a living like us all but hopefully they might work

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I just wait till i get a very quiet period and then go through my customer base and spend a couple of days calling them, works much better than sending mail. I usually do this at the begining of each year and i get booked up for a few weeks after doing it.

[Simon Gerrard]

Andy, if people get used to buying carpet cleaning by responding to offers from various companies on leaflets then you're really going to struggle to retain your customers. Have you got a website, or yp advertising?

Simon

[andy east sussex]

ye got website just one i put together really but didnt do to bad on first attempt

www.acscleans.co.uk

[Carpet2Clean]

Hi Andy


Going out tomorrow...Putting fridge magnets through doors.



Richard

[wynne jones]

There's postcards, email, letter, phone etc so you could communicate easily every couple of months in different ways. Don't exclusively send offers or try to sell something.

Some people may use you every few monts for something, many wont use you for years no matter what you do, but you aren't loosing business either.

You also want to consider direct debit schemes.

[andy east sussex]

see we dont get to much trouble getting work in ye we get our quiet times. just didnt know if anyone else had same hassle as us trying to get previous customers back

[davep]

Leave bottle of spotter. Much easier.

[*Hector*]

I also get returns from the stickers I put on the vacuum cleaner...

[wynne jones]

Spotters and stickers are good when THEY decide they need you, but you are not in their mind in the meantime. If everybody picked up the spotter or dug out your card you would be laughing. But the reality is every so often they get a leaflet or talk to a neighbour about their cc and despite how wonderful a job you did, you are a distant memory.

[*Hector*]

Makes you think that Mike Halliday has the right idea after all...

Blanket leaflet drop the whole area every 3 months... They get sick of you sure... but they have your details to hand when they do want you..