Having a Slow Week? Now What?
Having a Slow Week? Now What?
Most shops I talk with typically have a “Slow Day Plan” that includes items such as sending someone home, and/or handing someone a broom so they can clean up around the shop. Although these slow times can be great opportunities to catch up on some maintenance around the shop, it can be an even better time to focus on generating more business – immediately. The solution involves a combination of defining “slow” by measuring your business compared to the same month last year, and then sending compelling email blasts (aka. Target Market Promotions) to your customers.
Step One Defining “Slow”
The first step of your plan for generating immediate business during slow periods should include defining “slow.” Sometimes it is painfully obvious what “slow” looks like, but often times we don’t recognize it until it’s too late. Because the service and repair business is cyclical, comparing yourself to the previous month may not give you the comparison you need. A better way is to look at the current month compared to the same month last year. This is where the {Mitchell 1 SocialCRM – Key Performance Indicator} report can come in very handy. The report not only compares your business to the same month last year for Month-To-Date and Year-To-Date, but it does it down to the very day. Power User Tip: This is a good reason to ask your personal SocialCRM Support Agent to switch your automatic email reporting from monthly to weekly.
Monthly Sales Projection – No More Looking In the Rear-View Mirror
Comparing your current month with the exact same time period as last year is nice, but you’re still looking in the rear-view mirror to run your business. What you really need to do is a projection of how you’re going to finish the month given that you continue at the same Average Daily Sales Pace. And then compare your current month’s projection with the sales for the same month last year. This is all very doable by counting the number of business days you’re open for the current month and then multiplying your Average Daily Sales by the number of Business Days available. By comparing your projection for the current month by last year’s actual sales for the month it will be obvious exactly what “slow” looks like.
OK My Business is “Slow,” Now What?
By calling your SocialCRM support agent you can typically have an email Target Market Promotion campaign sent with 24 hours. The concept behind a Target “Market” Promotion is to identify a segment (aka “Market”) of your customer base and create a unique offer just for them. An example would be to send a special to those customers who’s vehicles are reaching 100K miles, or for those customers that have been away from your shop more than 12 months. The idea is that the better you segment your “market” the more special they will feel and the better response rate that you’ll see. Because you need business immediately you’ll want to be sure to put a short expiration date. You may even want to run two consecutive smaller email Target Market Promotions to better target your audience and to see which one works best. Your personal marketing support agent will then create your promotion and send it out.
So the next time you look at your SocialCRM KPI Report and notice that your sales pace is tracking behind your previous year’s pace you’ll know what to do – in addition to handing your tech a broom.
