By Rich Harshaw
My favorite burgers of all time come
from Red Robin. That dad-gum guacamole bacon burger is just flat-out
delicious. And lucky me--the nearest Red Robin Restaurant is only about a
mile from my office. I can easily fly over there anytime I want to grab
my tasty lunchtime treat. Couple that with their "endless steak fries"
and it sounds like a recipe for coronary disaster, right?
But here's the funny thing. I only
eat at Red Robin about once every month or two, and almost never at
lunchtime. Instead, I'll occasionally take my wife and kids
there--usually only when the kids beg me. So what gives?
Sadly, Red Robin never bothers to
invite me back for more. Instead, they arrogantly assume that their
great burger's going to lure me back all by itself. Not that I'm
pouting. And not that I'm upset. But I am busy, and I do have other
things to think about. So when the topic of food comes up, I usually do
something easier or faster or cheaper. Red Robin only comes in the
rotation every so often, and as such, they've blown their chance to get a
raving fan like me back over and over.
Retail stores of all kinds are
notorious one-shot sellers. Car washes, dry cleaners, restaurants, hair
salons, health food stores, video rentals, you name it; they all use the
cross-their-fingers-and-pray-they'll-come-back-for-more method. Again,
it's not that customers WON'T come back; it's that retail stores
generally don't make a proactive effort to get them back.
Ever heard the saying, "Even a dead fish can float down stream"
before? Many businesses just lazily float down the river gathering
whatever business happens to come their way. People need food, so a
certain number are going to show up in a given restaurant each day from
sheer momentum. It's not calculated; it's inevitable.
Here's a better strategy: swim like crazy! Go out and get the business!
Here's an easy formula for getting
repeat business that can be implemented by any kind of business--not
just retail. First, capture the names and addresses of all of your
customers. Second, contact all of your customers and ask them for more
business. And third, make them a special offer or offer them a gift when
you ask for more business. I know it sounds simple--and it is. But the
truth is very few businesses execute it.
Let me show you how this works. Let's
say you own a new and relatively unknown municipal golf course in your
town. You're just a few miles away from the more established, more
well-known golf course, and they seem to be getting a lot of the
business. How could you make this formula work for you? For this
example, I don't want to concentrate on getting new customers out to
golf for the first time. Right now I want to concentrate on how to get
the customers you do get to come back for more golf.
Most businesses, if they put any
thought at all into getting repeat sales, would implement a lame mailing
campaign with some kind of static, non-compelling brochure or postcard
that wouldn't even get the prospect into beta mode, let alone coax him
into a return visit. But let's review our formula. First, capture the
names and addresses of all of your customers. Second, contact all of
your customers and ask them for more business. And third, make them a
special offer or offer them a gift when you ask for more business.
Here's what you would need to do.
First, print up some professional-looking cards with a space for each
customer to write his name, address, telephone number, and email
address. The top of the card should read "Grand Prize Eligibility Card"
or something similar. After each golfer has paid, but not yet left the
clubhouse for the course, have the cashier hand each person one of the
cards to fill out. Don't have a stack of them sitting out so it looks
like any schlep can fill it out as many times as they want. Have the
cashier pull it out from behind the counter.
The cashier would then tell the
golfers that your golf course is giving away a complete round of golf
for four--including free range balls, cart rental, unlimited 19th
hole drinks, and snacks. The cashier should tell the golfers that they
have one drawing per week, and that there is an average of 100 to 200
cards per week, so the chances of winning are actually pretty good.
Maybe even a photo collage of the previous winners would be a nice
touch. Have the cashier limit registrations to one card per person in
the golfing party. The cashier would then tell them that the winner
would be notified by email.
Assuming you can get most of the
golfers to fill out the card, you now have nice customer list to work
with. Don't underestimate how powerful this can be, and how far ahead of
the game you already are compared to most businesses. So now it's time
to execute the systematic contacting of the customers and ask them for
more business, and to do so by making them a special offer or offering a
gift.
First, pick a winning card every week
and email the winner to inform them of their good fortune. That's the
obvious part. But the strategy does not end there. In fact, it's only
just begun. Send an email to everyone else who entered that week with a
subject line that says:
Congratulations! You've Won The Weekly Drawing From River Bend Golf Course.
Immediately, this subject line will
interrupt and engage. You might think that this email might get lost in
the shuffle of bogus spam emails that say that the person has won a
prize. Give your brain more credit than that. The reticular activator
will immediately pick the words River Bend Golf Course and Weekly Drawing as familiar, and instantly recall having filled out the card. Now here's what the email should say:
Dear Larry,
My
name is Bob Jones, owner of the River Bend Golf Course. I'd like to
thank you for entering our drawing for a complete round of golf for four
with all the goodies that go with it. Jack Stevens of Smithville won
the prize, and as you can imagine, he's pretty excited. I'm sorry you
didn't win the first prize.
But
here's the good news. You've won a valuable second prize. If you will
print out this email and bring it the next time you come, I will present
you with two large buckets of range balls and your cart rental will be
free for you and your guest.
Congratulations on your prize. We hope to see you soon.
Bob Jones, Owner
P.S.
Your prize is good any time in the next month. You don't need to call
ahead, but please remember to bring a copy of this email with you.
Thanks again.
So how do you think this will work?
What if you collected 500 entries in a month, and you sent out 500
emails with second prize offers. If only 10% of the people respond,
that's 50 people who are coming to the golf course for the second time.
Since they have to bring in a copy of
the email to claim their prize, the cashier can greet them by name and
congratulate them. The range balls and free cart rental cost you
basically nothing, and a certain percentage of these repeat customers
will become regular customers. And since you now have a complete
customer list, you can now contact any or all of your customers at any
time for any reason.
You'll probably want to get contact
management software like Act or Goldmine to help you keep track of your
customers and remind you of who you've made offers to and who's taken
you up on them. The computer software can also help to actually send out
the emails.
Now here's the problem with this scenario: most people won't do it.
It's too much hassle and too much problem. It's too hard to administer,
and too hard to take the time to manage it via the software program.
But if you feel like that, I have a very serious question for you: Why in heck did you get into business in the first place?
The amount of time it takes to cultivate perpetual sales compared to
the return on investment is ridiculous. It's a no-brainer cash cow.
There is really no excuse for not putting this kind of system into
place.
I told you that we were going to
discuss how to get first time or infrequent customers to become repeat
customers using this strategy, and that in this section we weren't going
to focus on new customer acquisition. But let me show you how easy it
is to use this same strategy to get new customers. Sorry, I couldn't
resist!
All you really have to do is alter
the formula a little bit. Instead of gathering the names of your current
customers, buy or rent a list of prospective customers from a list
brokerage company. Once you have your list, use the same formula: send a
letter that asks for their business and offers a reward. Here's a way
to start: get a list of certain types of people or professions. Let's
say you decide to get accountants out to your golf course. You can rent a
list of CPA's in your area for just a few cents per name. There should
be anywhere from a couple hundred to a few thousand--and there's a good
chance that many of them play golf. Write them a letter that goes
something like this:
Dear David,
I'm writing you this letter because you're a CPA.
My
name is Bob Jones, owner of the River Bend Golf Course here in Silver
Springs. Every day for the rest of this month, I'm going to give two
large buckets of range balls and free cart rental to every CPA and their
guest that play golf at my golf course.
My
reason for being nice to CPA' is actually pretty weird; ask me about it
when you come in. Make sure you bring this letter with you.
I hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
Bob Jones, Owner
It's not the classical marketing
letter, but it does interrupt and engage. It has a specific call to
action, and you know what, it works. Your reason for being so nice to
CPA's could be anything. Your accountant saved you a lot of money last
year, your best friend from college is a CPA. It could be anything. Who
cares about the reason, just get them in there! After all the CPA's have
taken you up on your offer, write the same letter to lawyers or
executives or sales managers or anyone you can think of that you can get
a list of that might play golf.
You must proactively seek to recruit
your customers back using Perpetual Selling Strategies. Most businesses
let their customers dictate what their buying habits will be--how often
they'll come back, how much they'll spend when they do buy, etc. Most
businesses are reactive when it comes to re-selling their customers. If
you already have sunk the cost of generating and nurturing a customer
once, for heaven's sake, get them to perpetually come back for more!
Otherwise you'll end up like that
dead fish... floating down the stream relying on sheer momentum to carry
you to an unknown destination.
