SENIOR’S SOLUTIONS NUMBER 22
In these difficult times, when every business is competing for its share of a reduced and competitive market, it’s important to be first choice for customers, says Grahame Senior
How to excel in hard times Standing out from the crowd
were 11 in a single day. While each one had something to offer – indeed, some were very clever and attractive – it was a particularly busy day and I simply deleted the lot.
O
One of the difficulties of e-commu- nication and e-newsletters is that all the onus for opening them up and making them work is placed on the recipient. I wouldn’t mind betting that 99 per cent of such promotional mis- sives are simply never opened and fully read. The fact that it doesn’t cost much to do e-communications doesn’t mean you’re not wasting your time and money. You might be better off seek- ing a different route. If you want to stand out from the competition and everybody seems to be concentrating on emailing, maybe you should go back to the old-fash- ioned way. Personal letters that are properly addressed in my experience work best of all.
Even simple postcards which arrive with impact, or attractive mini-bro- chures, have much more effect on the recipient. They do actually get seen and in many cases read.
SENIOR’S SIMPLE RULES
1 Know exactly who you are address- ing. Get all the database details right
and thoroughly checked. 2 Invest in accuracy. Ensure that the people who are dealing with the data are not distracted by day-to-day serv-
ices priorities. 3 Offer more for more. It’s not about discounts, but added value.
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4 Be true to your roots. Keep your brand character and style clear and consistent (after all, that’s why they
came to you in the first place). 5 Dare to be different. From time to time, offer something a little bit sur-
prising – refresh the relationship. 6 Keep up to date – on site and online. Make sure that your website
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital
is absolutely bang up to date with your latest offers and activities – they
will check you out. 7 Focus on your key business needs.
Time your promotional periods at the time when trading history indicates you need extra business. Start far enough ahead to give yourself time to fill in the gaps.
ISSUE 1 2012 © cybertrek 2011
n one day last week, I counted the number of unsolicited emails I received from hospital- ity operations. There
Do your homework Of course, the key to all communications is getting the detail right. Making sure you know who you are address- ing, what their previous relationship with you has actually been and getting their name and address correct is critical to being well received. Time spent building up your database is never wasted. Mailings with incorrect addresses, salutations or other details always become junk. It’s also important to remember that if you are going to email peo- ple, the only emails that actually get read are ones that come from individ- uals who are known to the recipient. It’s a good idea to build up an email- database of your key customers, but make sure that you address them cor- rectly and that they know exactly who you are. Unless it’s personalised it simply won’t work. Once again, time spent getting the detail right and build- ing both your mailing and emailing databases based on a real study of booking data is well invested. It should be a priority task for someone in your organisation, and not just something that is done at the last minute.
As with all of these administrative detail jobs, it’s a good idea if you can separate responsibility for ensur- ing that this is done correctly away from those who are prone to the distractions of guest relations and service provision. A calm and unhurried approach
works wonders for accuracy.
How to be a bit more special Having got your communication routes sorted out, the next priority is to make sure you are saying and offering the right things. Any established busi- ness will have a character and style that is known to its regular users. It’s important to make your promotions and offers consistent with that style and ensure that you’re offering the right things to people who will appreci- ate it. In the current climate, it’s clear that guests are likely to indulge their leisure appetites somewhat less fre- quently – and when they do, they’re looking for something pretty good. For this reason, I strongly believe that the thing we need to avoid is offering less for less – ie cutting the price but giving less value. In challeng-
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