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Ideas for increasing business

This is the old Locksmith business info area and will be broken down to fill in the new sections below.

Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby sevedus » 21 Apr 2009 19:49

Engineer, :idea: how about a menu of services? Like the maintenance check lists that automotive shops use. It might get to be a large document with prices of options, but up front candor about the costs can be simultaneously dissarming and reassuring to a customer. The breadth of services you offer becomes visual on the page. This is useful because sight, being our primary sense, makes better sense of abstractions than do our ears. Verbal explanations and descriptions are good but if you show something to the customer which gives him a picture to recall, even of lists under sub-headings, he gets an image of the scope of your services. We all want to project a good image or what's advertizing for? :) Later.

Stephen
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Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby mhole » 22 Apr 2009 17:56

Generally speaking, customers are OK with the 'non-standard locks' explanation - especially since it's usually explained at the time the job is booked in. If you get there, and tell them straight away, speaking with obvious knowledge and explaining why their lock is non-standard, then they will accept that you're on the level - this is an area where product knowledge definately helps. Being able to say 'This lock is a Banham L2000 rim lock, and it retails for about £200' sounds much better than 'This is a funny lock, it'll cost more'.
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Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby femurat » 28 Apr 2009 3:13

First of all: I'm speaking about something else. I work directly with clients but I'm not a locksmith.

Before I can start a job I make a detailed offer with a total price. I also show a work previously made by me as an idea of what a client can get.
Sometimes the client asks for something extra or for modifications during the process. In this case I have to choose if make it out of my pockets or say him "this was not in the offer, it'll cost you more" but this is normal in my opinion.

The most important thing for clients is to have a precise offer. They need to know how much is it. They don't care about details, they just need to know if they have the money to do the job. Is our duty to keep the offer a good business for both by choosing the right way to do the job.

I like a lot the visual menu idea by sevedus, but this is a second step. First of all you need to make an interesting standard offer.

Just my two cents :)
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Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby mattman » 21 May 2009 19:32

Engineer wrote:I still like this whole idea of a nice, simple service for new homeowners, where I take as much of the stress off them over securing their new property as I can. Part of that thought is no-one can afford a blank cheque, especially when they just bought a house. I'm just not sure how to "optimise" my idea into a simple "let me do the worrying" plan for homeowners, while still being able to it worthwhile to offer it.


Hello Engineer!

I hope you don't mind, but I have taken your new homeowners idea, and I think I'll use it myself. The only change is that instead of a set price to rekey their locks, I'm going to offer a 20% discount off the total bill. This way, the homeowner still gets a good deal, and my butt is covered if it is a non-standard lock that costs more to rekey.

Below is a picture of the flyer that I have made out to give to local realtors and insurance agents in my town. (The space at the bottom is where my business info goes, but I can't show that here, since we're not allowed to advertise our businesses in the forums - Rule #16 :D ).

[edit]
-Matt

[edit- it DOES have your company name in it.. nice try thou- unlisted]
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Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby mattman » 21 May 2009 21:24

[edit- it DOES have your company name in it.. nice try thou- unlisted]


Oops! I missed that. Here it is again, and I "X"ed it out this time. Sorry about that. :oops:

Image

-Matt


[EDIT-resubmitted link -unlisted]
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Re: Ideas for increasing business

Postby Engineer » 16 Jul 2010 14:00

Sorry to ressurect such an old post, but we are usually exhorted to keep all posts on a particular topic in one post after all!

I just came across this and thought (cynically) starting something like this near your shop, might be a wonderful way to increase business - Particulary if you are near a Church or other place where weddings are often done?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_padlocks

Note that there are already many places where it is done, but I have never heard of them before.
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