When opportunity knocks, the least you can do is answer the door

Howdy. Hope you’re well, being good and being nice to others!

One thing I’ve got to do on this site is add a search facility. It’s been done, but I just haven’t had the time to get the new site up yet.

If I did have a search thing, I’d check and see when I posted parts of what I’m about to write. But I’m just too busy to search through all the posts and/or articles – we’ll live people. let’s move on and I’ll write anyway.

A gym, a resort and a charity

I’ve written before about how we were doing some marketing for a gym. Costs about $1,000 a year to join. And our research showed that 4-5 others joined the gym when a new members told all their friends.

As part of our assessment of the gym business, one of the people here rang up the gym. It was about 3 p.m on a weekday. She got the message bank:

“Please leave your message after the tone and we’ll get back to you… your call is important to us!”

Well, actually it was important. But it wasn’t treated as such.

My staff member left a message – and this is almost word for word – “Hi, my name’s Bianka and I’ve checked out the gyms in the area and I want to join yours. Could you please call me back on 07 5598 4898 to make a time for me to come in and join up? Thanks.”

4 months or so later and Bianka is still waiting for the call.

In our briefing of the client I went into depth on this issue and mentioned that (at that stage 7-10 days had passed) Bianka hadn’t received a call back as yet. I explained to the client that if Bianka was anything like her other members, she would refer 4-5 friends to the gym.

So 1 phone call is basically worth $5,000+.

The client nodding vigorously and assured me she would put in place the systems we recommended.

About 4 weeks later Bianka rang again. She got the answering machine. She left the exact same message as before. 4 months later and she is still waiting for the return call.

The resort

We’ve completed a lot of web sites for resort booking in holiday guests. And we’re good at it. Damn good. When we do the site, bookings go through the roof.

We did a site for a new client and waited for the usual significant increase in online booking. And waited. And waited… and waited.

After a couple of weeks, I started to worry. Maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was – Yes, crazy I know ! Of course I am!!

I checked the stats on the web site and all looked good. Big increases in visitor numbers. Good quality visitors. The sales copy was strong. Everything was working well. The marketing was working a treat.

But the site had basically no bookings – I would have expected at least 20 in the first 2 weeks.

I called a meeting with the client to review just where the site was failing.

I remember sitting there in his office that was just off reception. I had a whole range of data spread out on the table in front of us. We were going through the stats with a fine tooth comb. Everything looked fine.

We were looking at the process we’d recommended for confirming:

• booking requests
• receipt of a quote request and how to convert that quote enquiry into a sale

My client mentioned casually to his Receptionist (the one in charge of that bit), “How soon after we receive the email booking or quote request do you follow up?”

(Remember, the site had been going for 2 weeks.)

“Oh, I haven’t done that yet. I’ve been meaning to do it this week.”

That’s right. They’d actually received a lot of booking requests and quote requests but ignored them all for 2 weeks.

The charity

We are managing a very successful and wealthy businessman. I’m talking a business that does up to $600 million a year. Big bikkies.

The web site page I filled in directed me to another page that said something like, “Thanks for your donation enquiry. One of our team will contact you shortly.”

That was about 10 days ago.

How much will my client donate? Not too sure. But it will be lots. And lots.

3 different scenarios. The same sort of outcome.

When you are in business, it’s critical that you make the most of every single opportunity. Don’t let anything slip between the cracks.

I always say that business is hard and tough. Because it is. Maximise your business. Maximise your potential. Be the best you can be. Don’t let stuff like the above happen to you – it could cost you your business success.

Because 1 thing I know is true – the next customer could be the difference between your success or your failure.

Cheers and have a good day.