To be successful in today’s competitive market place we must look for way to upsell to the customers that we already have. No, I am not talking about persuading customers into purchasing things that they don’t need. I am talking about helping them with things that they do need. It really surprises me when I take something to be worked on at a business and the business does not ever mention the other things wrong. That makes me think that they really do not care about me or value me as a customer. it also makes me think how many missed opportunities the business may have had. For example, I have been writing about headlight restoration.
If you are a detail shop, body shop or some other type of auto repair shop, do you offer headlight restoration? If not, you should consider it. Not only does yellowed, hazed, and foggy headlights look bad, but this may also be a safety hazard. Many people don’t realize that this reduces that amount of light that can shine though the plastic headlight lens, which will result in poor vision at night. Therefore, if you offered to take care of this problem for them, they would appreciate it. This is also extra revenue for the shop.
I think some businesses are like gold miners. They are always looking for the bigger and better deal. Rushing though one job to get to the next job. Spending significant amount of money to find new customers. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in the power of advertising and branding your business. However, I think some businesses do not pay enough attention to the customers that they already have. These are customers that already know, like and trust you enough to do business with you. Therefore, I believe spending more time with each customer could benefit your business. Are there any miss opportunities that you could better serve your customers?
Should you offer a service that a customer could do them self? You may not want to offer a service like headlight restoration because 3M now sells kits for people to do it them self. Therefore, you think that they would not be interested in a service like this. Well, there are some people that may prefer to do it them self to save money. However, the fact that you brought it to their attention and letting them know that yellowed headlights may be affecting their night vision, may be enough for them to remember you when they need other services. You may not have gotten the sale, but the customer knows that you care and you may now have a customer for life. There are also a lot of people that will tell you to go ahead and do it. Think about it, people know how to wash their cars and change their oil, but they have it done for them. This is because we all live busy live and their time is valuable to them. They want to spent what time they have off doing the things that they want to be doing. Not working on their cars.
My point is that there is a market in many of the things that we overlook. We need to start looking for every opportunity to increase sales if we want to survive in tomorrow’s competitive market place.