Archive for category Get More Customers

Nothing new under the sun part two: White van advertising

I was surprised to see this, this morning.

LONDON – “White Van Man” is set to become the latest ad medium with the launch of a media service offering to display posters on the backs of white vans across the UK- Source: Campaign Live

It was only last week a business was proclaiming their tech would tame white van man, tech that has been available and used for quite some time :-( . Indeed nothing new under the sun.

Upon closer examination this looks like a cracking idea, extra revenue for the owners of white vans (and as I own several, I know they are not cheap to run or maintain) as well as extra visibility for the advertiser. The downside are despite looking around the site of Posters in Transit, I can’t see what the policy on advertisers who are your direct competition. For example do couriers wish to advertise rival companies? Can you select who you promote?

What happens as a courier when you collect a job from a customer for them to see you are branded with their competitors products…

As many of us undertake ‘ad hoc’ work, we may not be able to specify our routes and journeys enough to qualify for decent paying advertisers. We will lose a days work as you can bet your life the van wrapping team only work 9-5pm Monday to Friday. Also additional work in the respect that we would have to notify our insurers that we are now carrying advertising on the vehicles.

Whilst van advertising is nothing new, this campaign does seem more prominent. It also seems suited to companies that use their own delivery vans rather than couriers. Couriers do far more miles but there are things like client confidentiality agreements, secure deliveries and high value deliveries that all require us to blend into the background – something that the advertising won’t allow us to do.

Sarah

Sarah Arrow can be contacted via sales@thecouriershop.co.uk

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Guest Blog: Couriers how to promote your business

David Paget is the owner of UKSMF Ltd, a free sales and marketing advice site. He has put together 5 top tips to consider with your courier and parcel business marketing practices:

1. Know your customer -  The first mistake many courier business can make is not knowing their customers. Define your target market carefully through research and segmentation, then position yourself as different and as superior to your courier competitors.

2. Get your message right ? A great way to do this is to do a SWOT analysis of your courier business.

  • Strengths,
  • Weaknesses,
  • Opportunities
  • Threats

Write it all out on a piece of paper and you’ll be surprised at how focused this will make you in writing your message to your potential customers.

3. Features and Benefits – A feature is a great thing but it always needs to be backed up by the benefits of the feature. I.E. ? ?  We are insured which gives you great peace of mind that your parcel will be delivered safe and sound.  The benefits will drive the customers impulse to buy your service against your competitors.

4. Always follow up You’ve just done all of the hard work and attracted the customer to your service, spoken to the potential customer and engaged their interest? So what do you do next? You need to schedule a follow up and make sure that you do it. Conversion rates can be dramatically improved just by following up properly. Even if you lose that potential it is still wise to follow up 3 months later, maybe they still need the service that you offer.

5. Keep your marketing efforts going – Even if your first efforts bring you 5 customers at once, if you stop marketing your business will become very quiet again. Even 10 minutes a day will benefit your courier business.

Try different marketing messages as some will work better than others, when you find one that works, stick with it. Running a business is about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration – stick with this motto and you should not go too wrong.

For even more free marketing advice for couriers, visit our friendly community over at www.salesandmarketingforums.co.uk

Look forward to your comments

Regards

Dave

David Paget
Operations Director
UKSMF Ltd

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Port deliveries – couriers – how not to incur fines

Port couriers for delivery
Image by Francisco Sánchez via Flickr

Delivering into ports is something that we enjoy doing here at same day couriers -Arrow Light Haulage, when starting out delivering or collecting from a port is something thats easy when you know how. If you don’t do it correctly then you will hold up the collection or the delivery and in some cases you may fail to deliver or collect. This is when the fines start to come in.

What to remember for port collections or deliveries

  • no children
  • no animals
  • 2 forms of ID thats photograhic
  • high viz jacket
  • safety boots
  • clear manifest of what is being delivered / collected

Failing to collect or deliver from a port is a serious issue for a courier, it is something that incurs port fines. This is something that needs to be taken into account when pricing for this type of work. Often a courier or courier company will think that they can do a deal and co load something with the port delivery and price it at a lower rate to win the business.

The courier wins the job but now has the port items on with other items. This means it takes longer if the vehicle is searched at port security or longer to complete the delivery itself, as its going to another destination first. When this happens the courier could miss their booking in slot and incur a fine. A courier I know racked up 30k in fines in one month, not very good for their business.

If you are looking at gaining work from portside warehouses or delivering into them on a regular basis, make sure you follow their guidelines and make sure you have plenty of time to make your booking in slot.

Kevin Arrow

Become a courier

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Thinking of starting a home based courier business?

Are you thinking of becoming a self employed courier or an owner driver?

Driving for a living can be one of the most rewarding jobs there is. It also has a lot of regulation and the biggest plus point to becoming a self employed courier is you can work from home.

Working from home as a courier will allow you to be a greener, more sustainable business as well as save money on office rental.

The down sides to working from home as a courier are there are too many distractions like the family, the pets, the school run etc.

This is only a viable option whilst there is just you as the main driver for your business. When you reach the stage of having employees, then you will need to become office based in order to have a health and safety compliant base. Alternatively you can upgrade your home and continue working from it.

Some people would say all you need to get started as a home based courier would be your van, a phone and a desk! Some would even go as far as saying with membership of a freight exchange you don’t even need the van! :-)

Starting any new business is tough, and starting in the courier industry is very tough. If you believed every ebook for sale you would think that there is a shortage of couriers, but that isn’t so. What there is a shortage of is good couriers.

If you think you can just pull up to a customers warehouse, grab the gear throw it into the back of your van and drive away, you need to think again. You may get customers initially that way BUT you won’t keep them.

Working from home as a courier can take a huge amount of discipline. It can mean having to separate a space for just your courier business paperwork. Whether it’s the dining table or the dining room, a designated space is essential.

Working from home as a courier has it’s benefits – make sure you weigh up all the options before you decide to set up office in your home.

Sarah Arrow

The complete guide for couriers is a downloadable ebook aimed at helping people make successful courier businesses.

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Couriers on twitter

I am compiling a list of couriers, worldwide that are on twitter. Some are active users, some are not.

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

If I have missed you, please add yourself in a comment with a link to your twitter home page.

@Essex_courier

@freight_rescue

@cityexp

@VelocityDublin

@clutchcouriers

@Capital_Courier

@dialavan

@motocourier

@WatfordCourier

@bostoncourier

@HotShotDelivery

@ZIPCOURIER

@Brianthecourier

@DiscyDave

@adicourier

@Jus10brown

@ officeboys

@ MadisonCourier

Freight exchanges include:

@courierexchange

freightrescuetinybutt

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Profile Twitter founders: Jack Dorsey came up with the idea for taxi and couriers

Dorsey, born in St Louis, Missouri, was interested in designing dispatch routing software by the time he was 14. Not a typical teenage obsession, perhaps, but taxicab companies are still using his software. He dropped out of New York University and left his job as a programmer at a taxi- and courier-dispatch service in 1999 to move to San Francisco. By 2000, he had started a company to dispatch couriers, taxis and emergency services via the internet. Anxious to find a new way of staying in touch with friends without having to stay tied to a computer, he approached an internet software company called Odeo, where Biz Stone worked. He wanted to create a communication service that allowed people to tell each other what they were doing. Stone, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has published two books about the growth of “social media”, and Dorsey produced a Twitter prototype in a few weeks.

via Profile Twitter founders: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams – Telegraph.

So knowing the one of the original applications for Twitter, why don’t more couriers use it?

Are couriers and  transport companies slow to engage modern technology?

Sarah

Twitter for Couriers and Transport companies

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Tips to help you get paid in a recession

It’s been a while since we addressed the subject of getting paid for work done and services provided, yet that subject is probably closer to the hearts of many a small business owner than ever before in these recession-hit times, when:

  • Companies big and small are ‘going to the wall’
  • Even good, established customers are taking longer to pay
  • Cash isn’t flowing as it was even 6 months ago
    1. Be prompt in chasing – you’ve provided the service or product
    2. You are entitled to the money by the agreed time
    3. The longer you leave it to chase your money, the further down the queue you’ll go when the cheques do get written out
    4. Speak initially to the Decision Maker who bought from you – three reasons for this:
    5. This is the person who values the purchase

      This is the person with whom you are building an ongoing business relationship

      In short, this person has a vested interest in keeping you sweet – don’t know about you but I can remember numerous occasions standing over Financial Directors and making them write out a cheque after ‘getting it in the neck’ from a totally fed up supplier!

    6. Don’t back down – be prepared to state your case to the top man or woman
    7. Be pleasant but firm – no-one wins if a slanging match is allowed to develop
  • So let’s have a quick update:

    The telephone can be your best friend – a very useful tool in chasing money, second only to presenting yourself at the customer’s premises, so keep lines of communication open!

    Over to you and best of luck!


    Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.

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Controlling costs – winning and keeping customers

More than 40% of small firms want more support to survive the recession, according to research by Lloyds TSB Commercial.

  • Two thirds of firms put advice on controlling cost top of the agenda
  • 60% want advice on attracting customers
  • 44% want help on how to keep them

So we had a quick look around the guides on website and watched the customer video.
And it’s the Lloyds TSB customer (business owner) input that’s really down to earth:

  • Keep your name out there
  • Bring the customers in
  • Look at your sales figures weekly not monthly or quarterly
  • Keep in close contact with everyone to avoid nasty surprises: Bank Manager, Accountant, Suppliers, Customers
  • Provide value for money: Maintain quality and standards
  • Don’t be too inward looking
  • Keep a keen eye on budgeting, planning and cash flow
  • Tighten credit management – it’s often not necessarily bad debt but too slow payers
  • When you get your customers look after them: Understand their problems

We’ve picked up on the final point we’ve listed from the video and the fact that many small firms want help on how to keep customers.

Lloyds TSB has a Guide on Market Research. They’re right to have it up there yet we believe they’re wrong not to put it into perspective as, in our experience, small firms tend to see this is as questionable expenditure in good times, let alone in a recession.

Focus groups need an experienced facilitator and should probably be outsourced to a company that knows its stuff – once you’ve decided on what the purpose is and that focus groups are the best way to achieve it.

On the other hand, telephone market research is something many small businesses can do themselves with a little thought and preparation. And the good news is, if you provide good products or services, you should find that your customers are happy to help you.


Linda Mattacks is the author of a series of training courses available at SellingForBusiness.co.uk developed to provide easily accessible training for small businesses who are not in a position (or may not want) to take time out to attend formal training sessions.

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Please sir, can I have some more?

When times get tougher, you need to look at all aspects of your business especially the parts where you could earn more money.

One area that is often talked about is ‘repeat business’, where an existing customer comes back to book your courier services again, and again and again. In an ideal world all of our customers would be like this (if we wanted them to be).

So how do you get repeat business from your customers?

The obvious one is often the one thats most overlooked – asking for more business.

When was the last time you did that? How did you get on? Did you just stop after asking one customer?

Sarah

For more tips on growing your courier business check out Linda’s ebook – on getting more customers for your courier business

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Hydrocharger – Have you heard of it?

For several years now, the UK has been moving the issues of Global Warming and the depletion of the earth™s fossil fuels further and further up the political agenda. Today, petrol and diesel prices have reached a record high, causing economic difficulties for businesses and private individuals alike.  At the same time, Government is pressing ahead with its policy of taxing vehicles on the basis of their emissions “ the more polluting the vehicle, the higher the tax.  Although it insists that this incentivises motorists to drive more environmentally-friendly vehicles, the reality is that motorists are faced with two choices, both of which cost money they can ill afford

Sell their current car and buy a new low-emission example. Due to ever-increasing fuel prices and a draconian Road Fund Tax policy, second hand values of high-emission cars are falling dramatically, making the cost of this changing your car higher than ever. It follows that the greater the Government incentive, the smaller the number of people who can afford to buy less-polluting cars.

  • Accept that there is nothing they can do about rising fuel prices and Road Fund Tax and simply find a way of paying it
  • Motorists are therefore between a rock and a hard place.  They would like to do the right thing and make the change, but cannot afford to do so.  If they do not change, they cannot afford to run their vehicles (on which they rely) without diverting funds from somewhere else (e.g. food, clothing, education, etc). This is undoubtedly having a detrimental knock-on effect on personal lifestyles and the economy generally.

    A solution

    The team behind Hydrocharger Limited has been researching and developing Hydrogen on Demand systems for internal combustion engines for around five years with a view to reducing fuel consumption and reducing harmful emissions.  Today the company offers an aftermarket product called Hydrocharger that customers can be confident will increase MPG for existing cars and light vans by around 25%, and at the same time will reduce emissions by around 40%.  Hydrochargers are also producing very significant improvements for Heavy Goods Vehicles.

    What is Hydrocharger?

    In very simple terms, a Hydrocharger system consists of one or more interconnected cells filled with distilled water and a small quantity of electrolyte. When the engine is running a current is passed through electrodes in each cell to produce HHO (hydrogen and oxygen), which in turn is fed into the air intake of the engine. The Hydrogen acts as a secondary fuel source, which reduces the volume of the primary fuel (petrol or diesel) that is required.  At the same time the oxygen causes the primary fuel to be burned more completely. The result is a reduction in petrol/diesel consumption and a dramatic reduction in harmful emissions.

    Hydrocharger cells are unique in appearance, being made of heat-resistant ABS with a full-height transparent water-level viewing window. All the components have been carefully designed to maximise the volume of hydrogen produced for a given current, whilst at the same time minimising electrode deterioration and preventing overheating. Registered Installers can either install Hydrochargers in the engine bay (if room permits) or remotely in the boot of the vehicle.

    Why buy Hydrocharger?

    With around 4,500 satisfied customers to date, Hydrocharger Limited is almost certainly the UK leader in this exciting new market. Hydrocharger offers the average motorist significant net savings in fuel costs.  If the Government could be persuaded to set a vehicles Road Fund Tax band by its actual emissions (i.e. post Hydrocharger installation) rather than by the manufacturers quoted figures, the argument for fitting a Hydrocharger to every vehicle on the road would be even more compelling.

    We are not aware of any other product of a similar price that can offer today’s motorist the chance to

    1. Reduce running costs so significantly
    2. Reduce their carbon footprint so dramatically

    A sobering thought

    If every vehicle on the UKs roads were fitted with a Hydrocharger, it would have the same effect environmentally as taking TWELVE MILLION vehicles off the road

    Goal

    The Directors of Hydrocharger Limited are committed to making it possible for as many vehicles as possible to be fitted with a Hydrocharger within the next five years, both in the UK and overseas.  Their primary motivation is the environmental and social benefits that Hydrocharger offers, rather than their own personal financial gain.  The Directors believe strongly that it is our collective duty to ensure that our children have a future to which they can look forward.

    Innovation

    Hydrocharger Limited is the first company in the UK (and one of the first in the world) to harness the established technology of hydrogen production from the electrolysis of water and apply it to the automotive aftermarket.  Utilising what is (to all intents and purposes) “free” energy brings welcome solutions to two of the major challenges facing motorists and society as a whole – how to combat  ever-rising fuel costs and reduce pollution levels.  Every conceivable economic indicator points to the fact that Hydrocharger is the right product in the right place at the right time.

    Motor manufacturers are all introducing new technology that will make the cars of the future cleaner and more efficient  but thats tomorrow.  The problem is NOW.  Buying a new, cleaner and more economical car does not cure the problem“ it simply shifts your problem onto somebody else (whoever you sell your existing car to).  Fitting a Hydrocharger does fix the problem because it increases your current cars MPG by 25% and reduces its harmful emissions by around 40% – and its a fraction of the cost of replacing your existing car with a new one!

    Hydrocharger can transform the cars we have today and make them as clean as or cleaner than the cars we can expect to be buying tomorrow.

    New Product Release

    We have now released our new truck system email for more information.

    Pricing

    Car/Van upto 3000cc                        £220

    Car/Van 3000cc +                                 £440

    HGV/24 volt system                          £1500

    Email for more information to get the right kit for your vehicle.

    sam@hydrochargeme.com

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