Collect Emails, Everything Else Will Follow

I have a friend who spoke with me this past weekend about a plumbing business he has just started, the starting point being a list he purchased from the owner of a previous plumbing business in the area.  After hearing about the business and the near term efforts to build a customer base, it made me think about a few relatively easy things that my friend could do to help build a successful business long term.  So, I thought I would share with everyone what I sent to my friend in a follow-up email …

Collecting email addresses is key, this should occur both when calls are made to the large prospect/customer list you purchased as well as each and every time you serve a customer.  If it is not collected by phone when the appointment is made, be sure to have your service technician ask for it.  These email addresses can be used for marketing purposes, be sure that there is an opt-out option that is clearly stated whenever you do an email marketing blast.

From a market research perspective which is my core area of expertise, you will then be able to:

– run a customer sat survey following up after each job is completed, thereby enabling you to address any issues or concerns raised promptly and to track results over time

– run surveys whenever desired to understand why you have not heard from some customers after a certain period of time has passed (lapsed customers) asking questions such as which competitors they are using and why, and what might it take to win them back

– run surveys to evaluate new product or service concepts, this can include altogether new services you might want to consider offering at some point and/or promotional offers or pricing changes you might be considering to grow your business further.  It can also include testing different ad copy.

EasyInsites can of course help you with developing and running these types of customer and product research when the time comes.  Beyond using your customer email database for research, EasyInsites can also access other consumers in the area for research purposes to help you understand the broader market opportunity.

Hope this brief outline is helpful to you, and good luck with launching the new business!

Community ‘Control’ More Sensible with Marketing than Market Research

Our ESOMAR paper has been featured in the Research Conference Report December 2010-January 2011 issue.

Main point: Online communities, particularly brand communities, are best led ‘by customers for customers’ and self-perpetuate most strongly when left alone. We almost dupe consumers if we interfere in these arenas with researchers’ formal, corporate or professional questions and comments. It’s not what consumers sing up to communities for.

RCR impressions of content:

Freshness: A
Relevance: A
Practicality: A-

For more information and to read the full article where our paper is featured on the front page of this report, contact Bob at www.rflonline.com