At WebReserv we have been working with the B&B industry for several years trying to provide the best service to our clients. We know that a good booking system is a valuable tool for the B&B owner, but we are also aware that there are many other aspects (marketing, communication, sales, accounting, etc.) that the business needs to refine and improve in order to be successful.
Yvonne Halling is a B&B owner and a WebReserv client. She runs a successful B&B, and wants to share her experience and knowledge with other B&B’s. She writes about the 5 most common mistakes that B&B owners often make. Each week, we will discuss one mistake and give tips on how to avoid them. Here is the 4th mistake.
Having NO CLUE about the Life-Time Value of a Customer
How many customers are you looking for? I know that might sound like an odd question but do you know that in marketing terms it’s massively easier to get someone to buy something from you that has bought from you before?
Now this is not me sharing this, I learned it in my long lonely nights learning about marketing and if you think about it, it is obvious. Here’s how it works, it’s called –
Know – Like – Trust
Now it’s obvious that for someone to buy something from you they have to know you first. So how many people do you know? And have you got them on a list so you can communicate with them?
If You Don’t Have a List of Customers, You don’t have a business.
Today I have several lists all working away for me with little input and what I do is to get people to ‘Know’ me first. I do this using my Facebook and Linked In accounts and have come to master this whole process which other than a little time, costs me nothing in terms of cash outlay. This is one big way I get people to KNOW me…
Getting someone to LIKE you is different to getting them to simply know you, Getting them to LIKE you means you have to interact with them but again if you are smart this is simple and takes little time and is, to all intense and purpose FREE, yet it’s something B & B people are not doing on mass that works…
Here’s the BIGGY though, for someone to buy from you they have to ‘TRUST’ you at some level, after all they are giving you their hard earned cash. Now we have to take that trust very seriously and we do this by delivering ‘MORE’ than we promised, YES if you exceed someone’s expectation they will be coming back for more, time and time again.
And if that’s not enough, most importantly they become a part of your ‘Unpaid Sales Team’ as they tell their family, friends, colleagues, even people they meet down the pub how great you are, and of course, just as sure as ‘Bob’s your uncle’ you get more people TRUSTING you…
Now once you have peoples trust, as long as you over deliver and never abuse them by sending them stuff they don’t want, all you have to do is stay in contact with them. If you don’t you simply become a distant memory and they forget all about you. In marketing terms you commit one of the cardinal sins of letting them go COLD!
Now remember they won’t mind hearing from you if you bring back happy past memories of staying with you and that in marketing terms is what is called ‘keeping them WARM’. Once you get this started and keep on and on building it, in business terms there’s simply nothing quite like it. It’s like having your own personal cash machine that produces cash over and over as soon as you send an email.
Imagine Lady Gaga for a moment. She has such a huge raving fan base, all she has to do is keep producing great content (aka another song or album) and bingo, another $10m in the bank.
You can do this too, and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
Yvonne turned her Bed and Breakfast « hobby » business, making 10k a year into a 6 figure professional B&B in less than 3 years. Trained in NLP, Presentation Skills and Leadership with Chris Howard, Yvonne is a professional coach and consultant helping B&B owners worldwide to make more money. Get the full report “5 BIG Mistakes B&B Owners Unwittingly Make And How To Avoid Them” at http://bedandbreakfastcoach.com
More information about WebReserv on www.webreserv.com
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