It amazes me that yesterday I received 3 letters from companies we use, apologising that their services will be interrupted over the next week or so due to the postal strike
They all went on to say, we are unlikely to be kept up to date of all their latest services, not receive invoices on time (well that’s not the end of the world from my point of view – but it most certainly is from the businesses in question), correspondence will be delayed, etc, etc.
How do this look to me as a customer that this has happened? Yes it can be put down to the postal strike and for me the issues are not that great!
However imagine if you are a business that prints out its literature. Or you had an important deal to sort that could be worth £1000’s for your business and all this is interrupted because of a postal strike!
Look at this from the customers shoes, if they don’t get the service or goods they want, then you are running the risk of losing business!
We live in an age, where this can be avoided. Most businesses use emails to communicate with their contacts, rather than using the phone.
However no where near enough are using emails to send out marketing material and to issue invoices.
To me the two most important parts of a business are:
1 – Getting the interest in the first place
2 – Collecting payment when a client proceeds
Therefore why is not every business using emails to its full advantage?
Here is a great example that explains this further…
Christmas is round the corner and already we are seeing Restaurants / Pubs with ‘Book Now for Christmas’ signs, posters, leaflets all over the place.
Yes they look nice, however they are all very costly! Think about this for a second, who is likely to book with a Restaurant or Pub for Christmas dinner?
A – someone who has never used the place before?
B – a regular customer?
The likelihood is it is going to be a ,B, a regularly customer, that has already experienced how fantastic the food and atmosphere is.
- Why not ask for an email address when a booking is made?
- Why not run competitions to collect email addresses?
Then when September / October comes around you are not spending £1000’s on marketing material, all you do is construct an email and send it out to your customers telling them how great Christmas lunch is going to be.
This applies to all businesses who are sat there scratching their heads wondering, how they are going to cope with a postal strike as their whole business relies on letters, sending out flyers and leaflets.
Remember all printed material costs. This cost can be avoided, by moving your business online and using email marketing.
Don’t let the next postal strike affect your business!