[tim handley]

folks, as a marketing tool, how highly do you rate giving away free spotters??
i know you can sell them as well, but purely as a giveaway....do they work?

[Mike Halliday]

Giving them to who?

 I think you need to do the maths, say they cost a £1 each and you give away a 100 then you've spent £100 could you spend that £100 and get more response .

I bet spending £100 on Adwords would bring in more work than giving away spotters.

If you give them to existing customers so they act as a reminder then I think you could still find a cheaper method

[from edge2edge]

yes

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike is completely missing the point. Not everything is about return on investment, but even if it is in this case then it is a bloody good investment in my view.
1. People  like two things, gratitude and something for free. So if you give a customer a bottle of spotter saying, 'here's a free bottle of spotter just to say thank you for your business,' you've achieved both in one sentence.
2. The labelled spotter serves as a reminder of who it was who last cleaned their carpets. It doesn't necessary matter how good a job you do, people don't always remember who you are.
3. Customers seem to love these spotters and often comment on how good it was, again reminding them of you.
4. Every time they use it and it does what it says on the label, they think of you.

The whole idea is to keep the customer's you've got and this technique is very handy tool in achieving that.
Need I go on?

Simon

[tim handley]

no simon you need not go on...............    but if you do i will read every word!!!!!!!!!!!
ive yet to try free spotters to be left with clients but think i shall give them a go.....
thanks for all replies, helpfull as always!

[john martin]

most look cheap and amateurish compared to chem-drys , and if they just contain watery microsplitter   ,
then they are cheap and useless . 

[stuart_clark]

Simon
I second that, I give away a bottle of spotter to all my new customers and offer them free refills for life


Stuart

[scott johns]

I have been giving away free spotters for over 7 years and I always advertise when you have something cleaned you get a free spotter. I have many clients phone up and say can they have another 1 or can they buy some from there friends I know they are a good marketing tool just last week I got a job off of 1 as the
lady had run out and thought it was time she had her carpets cleaned again. think of it every time she or
he has a accident your company is right in front of her or him so who will they call you no one else. the spotters I get look just as good as our specialist ones try it you wont be disappointed and as said on previous post people like to receive a gift just like we do happy free spotter giveways

[Mike Halliday]

No Simon I did't miss the point  he asked about using spotters as marketing tools, they are a terrible marketing tool thier return on investment is rubbish .

Do they serve other purposes such as showing gratitude or acting as a reminder yes they do that but Tim asked about using them for marketing and for  that they give the lowest return for your money.

If he Had asked about customer retention then that would have been different.

Alltec a few years ago tried to push the spotter bottle as  way to gain new customers, but it did'nt take off they are too exspensive

Spotter bottles are great,  I give them away....... but they are not an effective marketing tool

[Simon Gerrard]

Everything....everything we do as professional carpet cleaners is marketing. It starts with  the adverts we place, to the way we are in the phone, or during a quote, to carrying out the cleaning, delivering on your promises, to handing the customer a free bottle of spotter at the end  of the job and right up to saying goodbye - is marketing.
In the beginning we are marketing for their custom and once we have that, everything else we do is about marketing for their loyalty and for them to be so pleased with every aspect of your service that they are happy to not only use you again, but recommend us to friends, family and colleagues. The marketing machine never stops - ever!!!!
So in my view , if part of that marketing machine has a unit cost of £1 or £2, so what? It is not the individual unit that matters, it is the totality of our entire approach to customer service and quality that is the marketing machine. - that is what matters.

Simon

[Tadgh O Shea]

Everything....everything we do as professional carpet cleaners is marketing. It starts with  the adverts we place, to the way we are in the phone, or during a quote, to carrying out the cleaning, delivering on your promises, to handing the customer a free bottle of spotter at the end  of the job and right up to saying goodbye - is marketing.
In the beginning we are marketing for their custom and once we have that, everything else we do is about marketing for their loyalty and for them to be so pleased with every aspect of your service that they are happy to not only use you again, but recommend us to friends, family and colleagues. The marketing machine never stops - ever!!!!
So in my view , if part of that marketing machine has a unit cost of £1 or £2, so what? It is not the individual unit that matters, it is the totality of our entire approach to customer service and quality that is the marketing machine. - that is what matters.

Simon

You are spot on there Simon.

[Mike Halliday]

Everything we do is not marketing,  to say so is too wishy- washy, it's like saying everything we do is about customers care.... or everything we do is about company evolvement..... or everything we do is about sustainability, it's just a generic statement which has no substance

marketing has a specific definition and role with specific end result.  My answer on spotters is based on them purely as a marketing tool (as asked by Tim)not as a small cog in a bigger machine,  if he had asked "what do you think of spotters"  my answer would have been completely different.

I have tried using spotter as a marketing tool, I bought 200 from Nick and I think a100 unbelievable  spotters  from DF ( I think) I walked into nursing homes, hotels etc and handed them out trying to gain work, I stopped doing it as it did work but not well enough to keep up the effort.

Use spotters as an over all part of your marketing & business strategy,  but don't consider them to be an cost/ controllable/ effective marketing tool

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I give free spotters away and have done for about 20 years as an investment it's mediocre the best thing is that you can retain customers although I have a few stories about customers want to get free spotter to clean their own items or when you are really busy customers want a refill. It's part of the marketing mix.

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

In essence marketing is about strategies, making a play, a pitch, which lives and breathes in the minds of people you encounter, either through your advertising or seeing your van in the street, or through having used your services.
In the first instance they go to your website, or see your advert in yp and through what those adverts say pre-warms them to potentially using your services. Then they ring you for a quote and because part of your marketing strategy is to ensure that right from first contact customer service is going to be at the top of your agenda, the prospective customer has gone from being merely warm to red hot and WANT to use your services. If you've quoted over the phone then they have never met you until you knock on the door, so now it is personal. Again because of your underlying strategy of delivering  a great carpet cleaning experience you are pleasant, dressed in a uniform and are respectful of their home. You are also mindful of the fact that all this person has bought through having booked you is a promise, the promise of a quality job. So once again having thought this through you deliver on that promise and cap it off by giving them something free, just as a thank you.
The ultimate of your overall strategy is to keep this customer and because everything you do has been focused on this one outcome, the customer is not only satisfied with your service, but now considers you, ‘their,’ carpet cleaner and is more than happy to not only use you again, but to recommend you to others, all of which brings you jobs that have no advertising cost, which is where the big profits are in carpet cleaning. And if you manage to achieve that then you have not only won over their minds, but their hearts too and that is absolute gold dust to any business.
Throughout this entire process you are manipulating the customers mind which is what in essence any marketing strategy is designed to do. To not understand this concept undermines any notion of business building.

Simon

[Hilton]

Of course it's marketing, it's part of your marketing mix as has already been pointed out.

£1 for a spotter and give out 200, can I ask anyone but especially Mike did you get just one new job, referral or additional work from those that you gave out.

I know its a broader question than the original but its important that we don't lose sight of that fact that everyday we are marketing and selling,every day.

[John Kelly]

The Fire & Flood company I used to subby for decided they would add carpet and upholstery cleaning to their repetoire. We weren't happy about it but had to attend some training days. On one of these we covered marketing. There was a guy there, I can't remember who he was, told us a story about how he first started. He obtained a startup grant from the government but in return had to attend a business startup course. I did the same in fact and it was very worthwhile. Anyway as part of his course he had to do market research. This stumped him so he asked his trainer who said "well how many people get their carpets cleaned?" he said how do I do that and the trainer said "bloody ask them". Anyway it ended up this guy standing outside a supermarket asking people if they'd ever had their carpets cleaned. Can't remember the percentage who said they had but what did stick in my mind is of the ones who had, over 80% couldn't name the company who'd last done them.
This brought it home to me why it was important to market to existing customers but also to make sure they had some information about you which was easy to have at hand. Business cards, leaflets etc tend to get mislaid. Some people use fridge magnets and others in the past have put stickers on the customers vacuum cleaner. In my view (because I sell them ) spotters are the best option. Firstly as Simon says, customers love to receive something for nothing and it is actually a good spotter, ours are anyway despite being p issy microsplitter. We get lots of very good feedback.
What we also find is a lot of them are self financing as our customers tend to give half away and sell the rest.

[Mike Halliday]

Of course it's marketing, it's part of your marketing mix as has already been pointed out.

£1 for a spotter and give out 200, can I ask anyone but especially Mike did you get just one new job, referral or additional work from those that you gave out.

I know its a broader question than the original but its important that we don't lose sight of that fact that everyday we are marketing and selling,every day.

Yes, I can't remember the exact number but I did get some work from handing them out, but if I had walked in with nothing I bet I would have still got the same work, the spotters just gave me an introduction and reason for walking in the door..... "Hi! I just wanted to poke my nose in and give you a free bottle of stain remover "

I've done lots of free gift introductions some may remember a couple of years ago me posting about handing out free cans of  de-icer or the free newspapers or the free ice scrapers,   it's a tested marketing concept but I'm not daft I always do the maths and work out if it's cost effective. Spotters are not cost effective, they cost too much money,  why spend £100 to get £500 if I can spend the same £100 and get a £1000.

If you want your name to stay  in your customers minds then put a sticker inside the airing cupboard door, or like some do on the Hoover, or ask for thier address book and stick it in page 'C' for carpet cleaner.  stickers cost £50 a 1000, tell them...." that's my number, anytime you need me just call"

[Mike Halliday]

Just for reference you can buy 10,000 of these stickers for £105  (full colour)you could stick them everywhere, in their address book, on the Hoover, back of pantry door, etc...etc

( of course you would put your details on the sticker )

[John Kelly]

Personally if someone stuck a sticker in my house I'd hit the roof. Of course you would ask first and if agreed that would be ok but to not ask and just do it, no way.

[Darran Pryce]

We hand out nice quality pens to our custys, they love them.  Has our company name, website and tel number.    Works a treat! Spotters, pens, calendars,  etc all work in marketing.