You Asked, So We Did... How to fill a cancellation at short notice, EASY...
In response to requests from both existing users and potential users I've video'd the actual process, live, in our carpet cleaning business. So, what's happened is a commercial client we clean for on a regular basis was booked in for Monday and we had two technicians booked to be there all day. This morning they have rung, they have just found out they have an inspection that day so have cancelled Monday and we're going Friday instead. I've talked about this before but here is the live video of me actually doing it. With your database you really are sat on Acres of Diamonds...
I sent the email out at 10:30 ish, you'll see on the video, it's now 11:13 as I'm typing this post and ALREADY we have had a reply from a previous client booking for her suite and carpet to be cleaned and protected on Monday. EASY! This technique is so easy and never fails to fill the gaps.
You can target your clients however you like but we use a "Short Notice Offer" List. What's that? I've talked about this before in a previous blog, but basically we ask every client a simple question on the questionnaire...
"If you'd like to know about amazing last minute short notice offers please pop your email here __________"
This does a few things, it collects emails from people who you might not have an email address for, so you can add them to you newsletter etc AND it means these people are MASSIVELY interested in EXACTLY the type of offer you are making with this email. It's WIN/WIN.
Now I can hear you saying I don't have many emails so this wouldn't work for me. WRONG! Start now and you'll start collecting emails straight away, PLUS it does work with just a few email addrsses. No matter how many emails you have this is so easy to do that in a few minutes you have the chance to fill gaps and cancellations. I guarantee we will fill two vans next Monday with this offer, as I said, it's only 11:15 on Thursday and we've had one call to book, within 45 minutes of the email going out. And so can you as your list grows.
You could also do this by text message for same day cancellation gaps you need to fill. We've found email works best for a couple of days away, text wrks best for same day or early next morning cancellations. I think that's because people always have their phone with them so respond to text messages immediately, btu might not open emails until they get home from work or shopping. Just my thoughts.
Anyway, that's it, as requested, a live demo of how we use Easy Email Marketing to fill cancellations.
This tool is available in the Professional+, Business Builder and Turbo-Charged Editions. The specific, very targeted list I used is only in the Business Builder and Turbo-Charged Editions, BUT you can do a very similar targeted email in the Professional+ Edition too.
Your feedback would be appreciated, watch the video now...
Allan Jnr.
PS We have many clients who have told us they only ever use us when we do an offer like this. Now you might think that that's a problem, they only ever have work done at a discount! AH AH! THAT'S FANTASTIC, they are on a separate list (recorded as a Group on GetBookedUp) and these are the people we target FIRST with same day deals! WHY? Because these are the easy low hanging fruit to pick off no effort to fill slots. THEY LOVE IT & WE LOVE IT! It's all about per van daily average. If we can fill a slot this afternoon at 3:00pm then we can do another £x of work today, that's time that has gone, never to be available again to sell some cleaning in, so why not take it and keep clients, and you, happy? To me it's a 'no brainer'. So, if you need any help setting up templates to do this, or any help whatsoever just email or call.
