Reopening more successfully in Connecticut: crucial step to take

Reopening more successfully.  Have you been worried about how to reopen your business in Connecticut?  You can do it.
How?

Customers throughout Connecticut have been eager to get back to “normal,” but after staying at home for so long, they’re hesitant.  They’re not sure of the risks, or if the businesses they once loved are safe.

Reopening more successfully includes educating your customers

You can reassure your customers.

In the past few weeks we’ve created Informer messages on hold that

• give callers information about the steps that businesses are taking to safeguard customers’ health
• reassure customers that their safety is the first priority
• remind customers about all the best reasons to visit

Lots of different businesses face the same challenge: customers aren’t sure if it’s safe.

The CDC and other agencies have published extensive guidelines for businesses that should safeguard customers’ health.  The effort and expense that you’re undertaking are a part of doing business in “the new normal.”

Do customers know what you’re doing?

Cleaning, sanitizing, social distancing, wearing PPE, your business is working hard to protect your customers.  But if they don’t know, they can’t appreciate it.  So tell them.

Informer Messages on hold deliver your message to everyone who calls.  Informer professional greetings make your phone greeting a marketing tool, efficiently answering phone calls while including key information.  Every phone call is answered exactly as planned, with the same high quality.

What steps are you taking?

Your customers in Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk want to come back.  They’ve been loyal for years, so relieve their fears.  Show the that you’re following CDC protocols to provide the very best in safety.  That’s helpful to them, and helps you stand apart from the competition.

Don’t overlook the opportunity

You can reassure your customers, and attract new consumers when you keep them informed about the steps that you’re taking to safeguard their health.  Let us show you how others in your industry as well as other industries have succeeded in informing there telephone callers, with Informer Messages on hold.  Call us today: In Fairfield County call (203) 655-3920.  In Hartford, New Haven, and throughout Connecticut/The US call (800) 862-8896

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Hold Messaging can make your business sound more professional

Hold messaging gives you an opportunity that you’ve been looking for. When do you get the chance to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time?   That’s why hold messaging is so successful, for companies from Fortune 500’s to small private companies.  It works for companies like yours in New York or Connecticut that realize that callers get placed on hold.

#Holdhappens.  But you can transform hold time into a valuable an interesting experience, for your business, and for your caller.  Here’s how.

Hold Messaging is an opportunity

Consumers call you every day.  And every call is a call for help.  Do you have what they need?  Can you solve their problem?  How soon can you deliver?

Today’s marketing starts online: it’s how we all collect information.  If you’re not online, your potential customers aren’t going to find you.  We all do our basic Google research. But when it’s time to spend money, we want more.  We don’t settle for pretty website pages.

Your customers do the same thing.  How often does your phone ring every day?  Busy offices like your receive phone calls throughout the day.

• Some businesses use an “automated attendant” to answer them. Calls are put in “queue” (line) to be answered by “the next available representative.”  That time is usually spent listening to music (and it’s never your favorite).
• Others answer calls personally. That’s great.  But many callers are still asked to wait on hold. According to AT&T research, up to 69% of them.

What do your callers hear on hold?

When your callers have to wait on hold, even for a short while, they can get bored, or frustrated, or just hang up.  What do your callers hear on hold?  Music on hold?  Silence?

Why not give callers something they want?

Think about your callers: what do they ask when they call you?  Why not start to answer their questions, while at the same time showing them how you have the answers they need, and that you’re their best choice? You can do it, with custom written messages on hold.  On hold messages can be your newest marketing tool giving

• new prospects the best reasons to work with you and not your competition
• existing customers ideas about more of the ways that you can help them, including your most profitable products and services.

Find out how we help others in your industry:

                 

Find how how easy it can be to give your callers…your current and future customers more information by clicking here.

Call or email us for information about the marketing messages that will help you sound more professional.  In Connecticut call (203) 655-3920.  In New York call (212) 355-6980.  Nationwide you can reach us at (800) 862-8896.

 

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Reopening a business after COVID-19? What to tell customers

Reopening a business after COVID-19 is your opportunity to get back to work, welcome customers, and start making up for lost time.  You’re investing a lot in this reopening, so here’s a tip can help you make it successful.

We’ve all been closed, or partially shut down since March.  That’s strained your financial resources to the limit.  If you’re lucky enough to have the capital to reopen your doors, you may only have one shot at getting it right.  Do it wrong and your business may not survive.

Reopening a business after COVID must be well thought out.

You can find hundreds of tips for disinfecting, protecting, and social distancing that are necessary to both get back to business, but keep consumers safe.  The CDC has a long list of guidelines and the US Chamber of Commerce has a complete “Reopening Guide”

Customers won’t come back

But no matter how good a job you do, and how safe you keep your customers, they won’t come back without a good reason.  Why?

• 3 months of social distancing has broken old habits, so you have to win over your customers again.
• Even your most loyal customers are hesitant, and unsure about their safety.

Just this weekend we talked with friends.  They were having pizza for dinner, and we talked about several of our town’s pizzerias.  Sure, they used to have a favorite that they’d order from every weekend, but now they were “shopping.”  Their loyalty had disappeared.

Dominos, the world’s largest pizza chain, isn’t taking chances.  They’re advertising heavily.  They’re introducing new products.  They’ve got lots of “deals.”

They’re giving long time customers and new “shoppers” reasons to order.

What about hesitant consumers?

We’ve all worked hard to self-isolate, and stay safe during the pandemic.  We’re starting to relax, but we’re still hesitant.  Consumers want to know what steps you’re taking to ensure their safety.  Some simple steps that businesses are taking are:

• Phone and online ordering
• Touchless payment
• Curbside takeaway
• Touchless delivery
• Sanitizing
• Enforcing social distancing
• Enforcing face masks
• Changing traffic flow in retail stores
• Safe habits signage

These changes are simple but each is an investment of time and money that will add up.

Do your customers know how much you’re doing?

You can do everything perfectly, and consumers will still be hesitant.  So what can you do?  Simple: tell them.  Tell them in every way you can, and every time you’re in contact.  Dominos announced that your pizza is “contactless” from the moment it goes into the oven, but you can’t mount a national advertising campaign.

What you can do:

• Signage that reinforces safety
• Send Post Cards with a special offer and educating consumers about the steps you’re taking
• Email blasts to your “opt in” list
• Talk about everything you’re doing on social media. Include photos where possible
• Messages on hold that reinforce your efforts to safeguard consumers health

All those efforts may be wasted if your customers don’t know how you’re protecting them.  So tell them, and make your #reopening a success.

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Security System Marketing: how to beat the big guys

Security System Marketing is an uphill battle competing against industry giants like specialists ADT, Brinks, and Johnson Controls, and “smart home” supplier Vivint.  But if your Security company is going to compete, it’s time to come up with a marketing plan that takes advantage of what makes you different.

Security System Marketing isn’t just lots of advertising

We’ve all seen the alarm system ads on TV.  Again and again.  Every alarm company’s message is so similar that most consumers can tell them apart.  And that can work to your advantage.  Unlike Apple (ranked #4 in Consumer Loyalty) or McDonalds (ranked #7), most of us don’t see much difference between Walmart or Target, between Costco or Kroger or Walmart.

So as ADT spends $100 million in national advertising, they convince more consumers that they need a security system.  But only about 5% of homeowners choose the market leader.  The other 95% are yours for the taking.

How to compete against big business

The big guys have advantages, but so do you.  As a matter of fact, the bigger they are, the bigger their problems are!

1. You’re nimble.  You can “turn on a dime” and innovate any time you want.
2. You know your customers, and they know you.
3. You know your employees, so you have the chance to provide the best service
4. You can target your marketing

Here’s what we mean.

1. How long does it take to make a decision at a Fortune 500 Company?  With all those layers of bureaucracy, different departments and warring factions, mega companies have a well-earned reputation for moving like elephants.  You have the absolute advantage: no multi-levels of decision making.  When you see an opportunity you can take it.
   Try new things: many won’t work, but some will.  Try a donation to a silent auction.  Try sponsoring a kids team.  Try joining a homeowner’s association.
2. You know your customers and they know you.  Your kids go to school and play sports with them.  You go to church with them.  They’re your next door neighbors.  And gaining a few of them as customers makes a big difference at a small business.  A few customers are nothing to the Big Guys.|
   So use that advantage: get to know people.  Talk with them about their homes, and about your neighborhood.  Keep your company’s sign showing in front of your house.  Join local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and BNI.  Tell family and friends about your website.
3. Big companies need lots of employees.  They can’t be as choosy as you can.  You’ve got to work side by side with them every day.  Make sure that everyone in your company knows that they’re in marketing.  Train your techs to make the most of each visit: that’s a marketing opportunity: for customer loyalty, and for recommendations to neighbors.
4. Target your marketing for each stage of the sales funnel: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.  When a Fortune 500 tries something new it takes weeks or months of approvals, and thousands (or more) dollars.  You can target your street, your PTO, your pool club, or Main Street.  Guerrilla Marketing techniques were invented for the small guy.
   So use this advantage: first make sure of your image: you may be small but sound more professional, from the first moment a customer or prospect calls you, to how you treat them on the phone.  Make sure your business card is professionally designed and printed.  Leave professional marketing materials (including brochures, pens, magnets, etc.) at every sales or service call.  Try Nextdoor.com.  Become a security expert, and a source of information for you town.  Get a “car wrap” promoting your company and drive it…to the supermarket, to drop your kids at school, to the supermarket…everywhere.

More Ideas that help Alarm Companies Grow

These are just a few Security System Marketing ideas.  For more, read the book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson (this classic has been updated many times, so look for the one that will help you best).

You will have to compete with some basic marketing tools, but don’t worry.  You can show your customer that you’re just a professional with a simple but professional website.  Then use all your small company advantages to get Google Reviews showing your local fan base!

 

ADT is a Trademark of ADT Inc., and is not affiiated with The Informer in any way

 

 

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