Dave Coyle, industry marketing guru with Maverick Drycleaners, discussed “making your spikes spike higher,” in his 5 Secrets to Maximize the High Season webinar delivered April 19.
Coyle started the discussion by describing his typical business cycle with the caveat that it might not apply to all cleaners, particularly those with unique situations. “Generally speaking, if we zoom out…we typically have three slowish months,” he said. “The second half of December, January, February and the first half of March and we get past spring break then and we have a really busy season which is April, May, June.”
Coyle said the heat of the summer usually brings a slower income season for drycleaners during July, August, and September in the U.S. with things picking up again until mid-December. (Note: Coyle is scheduled to present “Subscriptions: The Key to Thrive During the Slow Summer Months” on July 19. Check your emails for invitations to this webinar.)
Coyle explained why the cycle works in this way in terms of planting seeds and harvesting crops. “Harvest is typically your high seasons… this is where most of your profit is actually made,” he said.
“I have always been of the opinion that I want to put more energy into making my spikes spike higher as opposed to making my valleys come up,” Coyle said. He said a cleaner pointed out to him how “making the spikes higher actually pulls the valley up a little bit, and that’s a nice indirect benefit from it.”
Coyle explained how the cycle works in his business and identified way to “put your foot on the accelerator and grow sales on demand,” he said. Coyle explained the nurturing phase of the customer relationship and then explained how to accelerate sales.
The first thing he discussed was a reactivation sweep: a method of identifying dormant customers and enticing them to do business with you again. “We all think that everyone runs reactivation campaigns and runs ‘we miss you campaigns’ and calls people the second they go out of patter,” he said. “Most of your competitors don’t do that and I’ve known that from really studying that.”
He explained how he conducts reactivation campaigns in his business using batch texts to all customers i his database who haven’t visited his business in the past three to four weeks. He showed examples of texts he sent to 22,000 customers shortly before the date of his presentation saying “We Miss You.” He said the result was, “A circus of marginal profit. We could control it. Our team did great… but be cautious of that.” He stressed the importance of composing the text as more of a friendly reminder and instead of a sales message because, “People hate to be sold but people love to buy and they love for you come along with a valid solution that solves one of their pain points. For us this is arguably selling them time… feeling great and anything that has to do with household sanitation and keeping their family safe.” he said.
Watch Coyle’s entire presentation in the Members Only Section of DLIonline.org. The video is included under Webinar Library in the Marketing area along with many more of Coyle’s presentations and more. Or watch it here: youtu.be/6C9tF001QiY
