What can I do with E-Mail?

As I write this Hanukah starts in 13 days, Thanksgiving is in 15 days and Christmas is in 41 days. So what does that have to do with Oriental Rugs and Rug Washing? I will tell you what, it is about money. Holidays are a time of parties, family meals, visiting loved ones and company. Think to yourself if you have friends and family coming over for Thanksgiving Dinner what do you want them to smell when they walk into your home the turkey or the cat?

Pet odor is a major problem especially since over 80% of all rugs coming in to be cleaned have some pet contamination. It is also a wonderfully profitable problem. Customers bring you problems, you provide solutions and they give you money.

But unless you take action some of your customers will forget to get the rugs done. Unless you take action some of them will wish they had gotten their problem rugs cleaned. Unless you take action some of them will even roll up the problem and stick it in the basement or garage until their company leaves. You customer faces shame, embarrassment, or inconvenience but you have a worse problem; you lose the opportunity to have your customer give you money.

One solution is email marketing. By collecting emails it gives us an easy inexpensive way to remind or customers that as of today there are only 40 days left to get their rugs cleaned.  Actually it would have been better if you had done that a month ago but there is always next year.

There are all the major holidays but there are other events you could email your customers. In most of the country moths lay their eggs in May or June that would be a perfect reason to send out a warning message. A spring cleaning message reminding people that rug wear is primarily from dry particulate soil abrasion in the foundation. Summer vacation is a great time to take rugs out for cleaning. Fall is the annual start of the rug season. The list goes on and is as big as your imagination.

USPS Mail is so expensive and even post cards for rug washers are so 1995. I mean really Postcards are as old fashioned as Bronze Silver Gold pricing packages. It is time to focus on email and get set for text messages as well.

Business Image and Brand

Does your business agree with your vision and is either in line with your mission statement. If your goal as a Rug Washer is to be a Hack or a Second-Rater then stop reading this article. Anything you do or don’t do does not really matter. But if you want to run a high end Rug Washing Boutique then you need to take a serious look at everything you are doing.

Do you have a location where customers can pick up and drop off their rugs? Take a critical look does your business has curb appeal? Now obviously we are not trying to flip houses but what does your customer see when they pull up? Here are some basic questions:

Is your property clean, orderly, and in good repair?

Do you have that rusty car you mean to get running one of these days?

Is their scrap, junk, or clutter in the view of customers when they bring their rugs to you?

Are their weeds growing up between the sidewalk or drive and the building?

Is the building painted and in good repair?

Luv-A-Rug Services 250-590-6210

I think you get the idea. You are selling cleaning and your services to put things in their proper order. I know you are swamped and you are meaning to get to it but your building is where you say who you are and a junky cluttered mess in need of care is the wrong message. The better it looks the better you look and if you are building your high end Rug Washing Boutique you need every edge that you can get. Clean it, fix it, paint it, and get it done.

Now my eyes are not that good any more so how easy it to find your place? We are not dealing with maps and pictures on the web here I am speaking about signage. Can I see your business easily driving by? Maybe you have good eyes and you can see that 1 by 2 foot sign in the window from a block away but ask yourself are customers over 50 important to your business and your future? Make it easy to find you. Also you need to keep your exterior display changing. Sign boards work well for many people. Can you dry or dust rugs where it is visible from the street? Any sort of activity draws attention. If you can keep some aspect of your signage changing every 10 days it will be far more effective.

From the front door to the counter or whatever apply the same sort of examination inside that we just covered for outside. But clean and orderly is just the beginning; Does your interior say “Rug Expert” or Hack. What about your interior says Rugs to the newcomer? Do you have any rugs on display? Some display rugs, tribal trappings, maps of the weaving areas and novelties like a miniature Navajo loom helps create an image that draws your customer in. Rug book and a magazine such as "Carpet Collector" attract customer interest and these things build your image as a Rug Expert. Dirty, smelly soiled rugs don’t look good or smell good. Don’t keep piles of rugs in your display and selling area. Keep moving them to the back. I think it is best keep the display and selling area separate from the cleaning area but I do believe in welcoming customers to visit your cleaning area anytime they want. Now that I think about it why not invite everyone to see you clean. Getting the local 5^th grade class to stop by and see a display of chemistry in action could send 20 or 30 little sales people home to tell their parents about what they saw.  

These is just the start but take what I have given you and see how it applies to your business. To some of you this is old hat but to some of you the ideas here can make your business far more profitable.