Looking For Business

[BushWacke]

I have been doing WSR for about a year and have done really good in the summer. I basically hit all of the local businesses and get a few referrals from lynx and safelite. My question is do any of you ever go out through neighborhoods from house to house knocking on doors looking for buisness? Just looking for some ideas to gain more buisness. If so, do you do any good?
Thanks,
Steve

[repare-brise]

Steve

Check your private messages, I sent you a long text that doesn't fit here. Good reading and have fun, let me know what you think, and should I share it with other members?

Merci

[dgarza]

repare-brise,

yes please share..

[repare-brise]

Since I was so politly asked I can't refuse, please pardon my spelling and grammer errors, english is a second language.
Windshield repair marketing, a few hints


These are a few techniques that have worked well for me, I hope that they are of use to you in your business. In order to save you time I have organized them by customer groups, Dealerships, Service shops, Insurance brokers, factories, and the general public. I have listed them in point form where applicable. Please don

[repare-brise]

Here is part 2, for the insurance brokers it may not pertain to your market, but applies in most of Canada(see part1)
Fleets

Fleets are a good avenue for us as well, they can be slow to adapt, but they eventually come around. For trucking companies, windshields have traditionally been cheap(flat glass), but with the new aerodynamic trucks with curved glass they are finding out that a windshield costs more than $50(more like $5-600.00) and repairs are becomimg more interesting. Trucking companies are big customers for scratch repair, as well as bus companies. By offering one stop shopping for their glass needs(other than replacement) you become a good friend. Another approace for fleets is a service contract, where on a regular basis you visit them, and charge a flat fee for each visit depending on the number of trucks in the fleet. Below is a chart form a french company (http://www.spb2000.com/icontrat.htm) they work on a contract basis with trucking and bus companies, the charge is on a per vehicule, per year basis (if the company has 37 trucks it will cost them 1594.70euros per year and they will get 12 visits from a technician)

#of trucks cost/per truck/per year # visits #of trucks cost/per truck/per year # visits
5

[repare-brise]

Part 3

The General Public

These are the hardest customers to get, but in the long run the best(word of mouth is the best form of advertising bar-none) and most profitable. In point form here are a few sugestions.
- Yellow pages
- Coupons, either through direct mail or weekly news paper/ shopping news.
- Flyers, put flyers on cars you can repair indicating the price and time required(a small pictogram of a windshield to indicate the location of the chip is good on the flyers, some people don

[mr. P's Mobile Detail]

Yvan, intresting post!

Now can you transulate the fleet chart to US$$$ like you did in the rest of the posts?

Keep up the good work.

[repare-brise]

To translate the chart you are best to go to the website listed( http://www.spb2000.com/icontrat.htm ) the chart is clearer thier, and substitute the titles NOMBRE DE VEHICULES PAR DEPOT = number of trucks in the fleet COUT ANNUEL H.T PAR VEHICULE= annual cost per vehicle (paid yearly) NOMBRE DE VISITES ANNUELLES = number of visits in the year.

Hope this helps, as for euro-us$ conversion your guess is as good as mine(I have a turtle slow dial up connection, so exchange research is best left to a high speeder)

Merci

[screenman]

Yvan

On behalf of everyone on this forum many thanks for an exceptional reply to a good question I hope many people take notice of it.

This sort of reply takes a lot of time and effort all of us are lucky that we have techs that are prepared to give their time to help others.

[repare-brise]

Thanks for the kind words, if you can't be of help you may as well stay in bed, at least you wont be in anyones way. If someone manages to get an extra customer than it was worth the effort, commision checks can be forwarded.......(just kidding)

Merci