What do you think about this Ideer???

smittie1984

smittie1984

New member
In a hope to build my customer base I came up with an Idea. It will be kind of like those "Repeat" customer cards you get at "Moes" or "Subway" or places where you buy so many meals and get 1 free. And they usually punch it out or stamp it.

Well I started something similar. I got a box of 1000 business cards for $36. It says my company name at the top with my phone number below it. Then it says "Customer Reward Card" below that. Then it states "Get 7th one free up to $200.00 value". Then below that it says "Customer name" with a line for the name. Then below that are 6 empty square boxes.

What I do with those boxes is I work kind of off a point system. A House job equals 1 point same for a driveway by it's self. A House and Driveway together equals 3 points while a Customer Reference equals 1 point (Providing I get the job). And I fill out the boxes where H=House, D=Driveway, C=Custmer Reference, and H&D=House and Drive together. And for H&D I'll put it in 3 boxes indicating 3points.

But after the boxes are filled out I would do a job up to a $200 value. Now say they have a $250 job I'll only charge them $50. Now if I got 6 $1,000 jobs of course I would work with them and give them more than a $200 value. But I did that because I would most likely end up doing a house or just a driveway.

But I figured that if I even got 6 $150 jobs out of a customer then I would have $900. Which would be super to me. And would be the equivilant as if I did each job for $115 or knocked off around 25%.

The thing I hope to get most out of it though is Customer referell. I doubt seriously that someone is going to hang on to that card long enough to actually use it. But I hope that they may hear a friend mention it and they recommend me. And I'll give their friend the card and hopefully it will have kind of a "Pay it Forward" effect.

Now you might be wondering about someone trying to screw me over. Well what I do there is take a card myself. With the customer seeing me fill it out and explaining I'll take this one with me. And I'll fill it out the same and I post it on a bulletin board at my house where if a person calls and says "So and So mentioned you" I'll mark it on the card to keep track. And if someone says they have theirs filled out I can look at the board and know if they are telling the truth or not.

But I want to know what anyone thinks of this or if anyone has done something similar. And how well did it or did it not go. For $36 dollars if I even get one job because of it I figured I made profit. And if you plan on doing this yourself let me know and tell me how it works out for you.

Sorry for the long post but I had to make everything clear.
 
Honestly?

It sounds like a real PITA to maintain. If you offer top quality services people will call you back without having to get $200 of free services. Give them a fair price and outstanding service and they will keep your phone ringing. Just make sure you give them magnetic business cards so they can find your phone number when they need it.
Also, spend some time making a maintenance program for your services that's automated. Your clients will love this a lot more than having to keep "another" one of those punch or swipe cards.
 
If your clients are calling you back (since you did such a wonderful job the first time) why do it for free? Offer them x dollars off from paying referrals.....we have "wash bucks". For every paying job we get that they refer, we will subtract that amount from their next service.

Celeste
 
The main thing I am hoping to get out of it is Customer Reference

As good as of a job you do. The customer is not going to walk around and preach to everybody they see about how wonderful of a job you did. It would be nice. But that is not reality. Now if you did a bad job that would spread but I dont do bad work. Also it takes years to build a name. I've had some repeat customers and it hasn't even been a year for me. August would be a year. But my first repeat customer was from a job I did in December of 04. I just recently did their house this last April.

When they do refer you, most likely they may be with a friend and their friend will mention about how dirty their house is (The potential future client's house). Then the former client will mention that they ought to get it pressure washed. And if your lucky they will say "You ought to try MDS Pressure Washing. They did my house." After that they will ask "Do you have their number on you". Then your former client will say "I have their card back at the house somewhere. I'll look for it when I get back". Then the other person will say "Alright". And that will be it.

But the reality is your card is lost somewhere in a maze of other cards. And they are more than likely going to forget about it by the time they get back.

But if they have something that gives them the chance of getting something free. It will be in their wallet. In my wallet I have about 3 Moes cards. All with holes in the but none filled out all the way. I think a Subway card. 3 or 4 discount cards (That school kids and football teams give away to raise money) that I Have yet to use. Even though I've been to those locations who knows how many times. 2 free chick-fila biscuit cards. And a free chicken sandwhich. And a couple other free cards which expired before I was even born. Why??? Because of that magical word "FREE". I have 2 million business cards but only a few grace the presence of my wallet. Sadly. I have more business cards in my wallet than I have cash.

The way I see it is look at the lottery. The chances of hitting anything worth a crap in the lottery are practically nothing. Your more than likely to die in a plane crash. Or get struck by lightning or witnessing Howard Dean becoming the Republican Queen of England.

But I see these people all the time at the Gas stations "Yeah, uh...I've got uh... 3.34 in gas on uh... let me see...(Pause for about 1 minute) on Pump 4. And Uh Um. OH! a Pack of Marlboro Reds. And yeah uh, um and 2 lotto souths, 5 lucky 7s, 3Powerballs, (Add about 5 more scratch games at $2-$5 a peice plus the one where you pick about 30 numbers out of a trillion or more possibilities) and this Case of Natural Ice. Oh yeah. Don't forget the Auto Trader" And about 5-10 minutes later you hear the gas station cashier say "That will be $70 and 67cents. And these people will spend 100s if not 1000s of dollars every year to win free tickets and every once in a while $50 thinking they are getting something for nothing. But the thing that kills me the most is the most excited I see the people get is when they win the "Free" tickets because when they do they get right back in line to buy some more because "The feel Lucky" or "They have nothing to loose since it is Free" Even though they have dumped $1,000s into the system.

That is how I got the Idea. I was waiting in line behind 3 of those people. I swear I was there for 1 hour. But the first guy won a free ticket and got back in this eternal line to get another ticket. And he was smiling and all happy. I was fiddling with my wallet ready to pay for my $20 worth of gas and a bottle of water. Then I looked at my Moes card and said "I think I'll get lunch at Moes. I'd enjoy a "Joey bag of Donut's" right now." And that is when it hit me. I was going to pass by 10 resteraunts before I got to Moes. Simple as that.

None of those resteraunts are bad. Infact I was going to pass by some which are better and cheaper. But because I had that card in my wallet because of the "Free" thing I made a choice to take my business and money to Moes.

So I think it can work.
 
I'm not saying it can't work, I hope it does. I just don't think it's going to work as well as you think. There have been quite a few good ideas on this board and here's one that would probably work better.

Get small brass plates that can be tacked on the deck stating this deck was cleaned by..... and list your phone number and website on it.
Use magnetic cards, people hang up their kids pics with them for years!
 
Oh I understand.

I'm not expecting anything like a 3000% increase in my business. But I think it would be something that would work. And I wanted to put it out there on the table for anyone else who might want to try it. I have thought of the Magnet idea. But it comes down to money. I have little. I dont even have shirts yet. For advertisement I have some black and white business cards. A sticker with my company name and phone number on the back of my truck window. (I've only recieved a few calls from that sticker and only 1 job). Phone number down the side of my trailer on some large PVC tubing where I keep my Extention wand. Some Flyers. Kroger Bulletin boards. Where I have yet to get 1 job out of that. Only 1 call out of those but no job. And a $60 a month add in the Gwinnett section of the Atlanta Journal where I recieve maybe 4-5 calls and get 1-3 jobs a month. And I am by myself in there. No competition. Yet very few calls. But I keep doing it because it gets me atleast 1 most of the time. And it has saved me from some Hard times. Though this month I haven't yet. But I do get about 300 calls a month from Bellsouth offering me great deals for advertisement because they saw my add in the AJC. Then they all love to ask you when you say your not interested "But don't you want your business to make money?" Times like that I wish I could reach through the phone and strangle them. Of course I don't. :rolleyes:

I even had a women who recieved one of my cards somehow (though I never found out how) who put me in "Blueprinting Georgia" or something like that. It's one of those little newspapers you get for free from resteraunts or other places of business. It is mainly for builders and it talks about the latest news in construction in Georgia. She gave me 2 months free in there because it was brand new. And needed some businesses in there to show what it looks like so they would invest their money into advertising in that. The only call I got from that was some guy claiming to be a "Gutter Guy" who wanted to know if I have gotten any calls. He was my first and only.

Right now I'm about to put out about 300 flyers. I would do more but my printer ran out of Ink. So I am hoping to get some jobs out of that.

And oh yeah. I like that brass plate Idea. Though I would never let someone put that on my deck. But if someone is up for it why not. The only problem with that is I do very little deck work. I am too inexperienced. (In fact if anyone here from Georgia does that give me your number and when I get a call for deck work I'll give a reference) I just do Houses and Driveways. I have thought about making those little signs that say "This House Cleaned by..." that you can stick in the front yard by the mail box or something.
 
We put yard signs out at every job we have - calls have come in like clockwork. That is an investment that will pay. Our business cards are fairly impressive - have before and after deck picture on it as well as our logo (of course) then the Wolman & PWNA logos...printed front and back (except the ones that the printer screwed up - those get put on magnets) The stand out in stacks of business cards on counters, etc.. where we put them. Truck has large logo on the back window, on the doors and numbers on the tailgate...Suburban is logod on side windows. BIG....people notice them. Our Bellsouth ad paid for itself the first month last year and has paid for itself already this year. The Sprint ad has paid for itself for the next 2 years and it's only been out a couple months.

Just some ideas.

Celeste
 
Henry do you know of a good place to get the magnetic business cards?
 
Go to www.columbiadesign.com . They have the thickest magnets I have found. A lot of companies tell you they use a 20mil magnet and when you get it it is very thin and barely sticks to anything. I got a couple of samples from columbia design and I was very impressed. I ordered their 30 mil magnets and they are very strong. Their price was about the same as the rest. Get some samples from them along with the other companies out there. Put the magnets on your refrigerator and see if the thin ones will hold anything up. Most claim they will hold up to 5 sheets of paper but they will not. I bought from columbiadesign and am very happy. I am not compensated from them but will tell everyone that is looking for quality magnets to get some samples from them. Hope this helps.
 
Christopher,

PLEASE put your name and telephone number in the signature line. There is a thread with specific instructions on how to do so if you need to check it out.

Thank you,

Celeste
 
If your looking for printed, magnetic cards I haven't really found any one place that's all that great. Most of the places that print business cards on magnets use very thin magnets and they don't hold up. If you want to peel off a wax paper coating and put your own card on them, try magnacard.com
 
Corolina Pro Wash, I like the idea of wash bucks. Referal gets a discount and you get to keep the majority of your hard earned money.
 
The nice part of it is that you can stack the referral fee on top of the quote. Usually when you get a referral the conversation starts, "Mr. So & So told me to call you or You washed my neighbor's house yesterday..." Besides, getting a $1000 deck job is certainly worth taking $25 off of their next job :)

Celeste
 
No Discount is my policy....I do a great Job on everything I do .. If I don't get thru or feel good About something I did . Then I will go back the next day or night and finish up.. I do a great Job at a great price.. If my customers don't like the cost let them go somewhere else.. When they do use someone else they usually call me right back ..Then I never lose them again... It's not selling the job that matters it's how you sell yourself that counts....
 
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