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Regular Member
Re: Struggling to get customers
What do you do about a map spot if you are mobile? I'm not dropping a pin on top of my house.
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Super Member
Re: Struggling to get customers
3 words - Word of Mouth.
Get involved in a local business group or fb page. That is how my business started and I only do it part time. I have never advertised and this spring/summer was my busiest ever. It is all referral work. If one of your customers has a homeowner's association webpage for their area, have them post your information and offer them a referral discount. I currently have 8 vehicles in a 5 block radius within the same development and it started from 1 person posting my info on the homeowner's page. I don't even belong to the small business page anymore because they let another detailer in and he was trying to undercut my jobs so now I only do my regulars and referral work.
Do not compare your work to the work of others. Do YOUR best job every time and you will see how quickly your reputation grows. It does take time, but you're better off in the long run
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Super Member
Struggling to get customers
Remember, you only have been doing this professional since April, it doesn’t happen over night. You need to build up to it.
I started as a mobile service because I feel that it’s easier to grow the business at first. I started late 2015.
For me, it got easier by year two. How??
In no particular order, but here is what I focused on since day one.
1) producing amazing work and gaining positive reviews—in my case I focused on looking like a monster on Google reviews. Pick one thing and do it well!
After about 7-9 5 star reviews, the calls came in more often than usual. As of right now I have 41 reviews on Google (all 5 stars).
It’s gotten to the point where people don’t even check my website much (at all really). During peak season, this year, I was average about 3-5 calls a day. Is that good? For my second FULL season. I’d say yes compared to my famine year of an average of 1 call every week.
2) Local SEO (Organic SEO comes after) is SUPER important. Got myself into Googles local pack ASAP and saw an immediate jump in calls—works hand in hand with one
3) Word of mouth—enough said!
Things I wish I did since day one, but eventually did soon after
1) get referrals
2) Your best networking opportunity are actually with your immediate high-quality detailers your area. Once they knew I meant business and saw my quality, it was all gravy.
I started networking since early last year. And since then, I have taken the time to go visit other peoples shops. One in particular—we don’t view each other as competition, but as colleagues. I make sure to throw them some every jobs every now and then.
Here is the key:
This guy is a former mobile detailer who later went shop. So he offers me all his mobile clients as he no longer travels mobile for the most part—look for a win-win relationship.
I get tons of business referred from this guy. Will be giving him a basket of compounds and polishes as a thank you soon.
Anyway, I will stop here.
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Super Member
Re: Struggling to get customers
I apologize if some of these points have already been made but this is my share of my on experience.
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Regular Member
Re: Struggling to get customers
Thanks for the input. That was very helpful. I was all referral based in Germany before I moved back to SC but the going has been slow so far. I just made some contacts and scheduled a few jobs for next week finally.
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Super Member
Re: Struggling to get customers
Originally Posted by
Stevedotmil
Thanks for the input. That was very helpful. I was all referral based in Germany before I moved back to SC but the going has been slow so far. I just made some contacts and scheduled a few jobs for next week finally.
Keep it up!
Sent from my iPhone using AGOnline
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