Hospitality Doctor
Max Hitchins
Use the Olympics to ‘keep’ your best customers
per year for each customer. If you knew one of your best customers was going to leave you to go your opposition, may I ask, “How much would you pay to ‘keep’ him or her?” $100? $200? $500? What about if you gave him/her a topical book about the Olympics that will more than likely ‘keep’ him or her as a customer as you made him or her ‘very’ special? This is the kind of thinking that improved our Bondi Junction hotel turnover by 800 per cent. If you like this idea, can I suggest you order copies of CHASING GOLD for YOUR ‘best customers’. If the idea interests you, I invite you to check out and order copies of CHASING GOLD below. If you have any problems call me on 0419 53 63 73 or email me at max@hitchins.com.au I will finish with this quote “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
We have just witnessed the super successful Olympic Games in Paris. Australia won more gold medals than it had ever won before. I hope you capitalised on the never ending TV programs that took over our media. Clever hospitality operators are now turning their thoughts to how to get in the ‘slipstream’ of this most memorable and successful world-wide sporting event. I expect Australia will be talking about the Olympics until Christmas. I suggest to you there is an opportunity to ‘lock in’ your best customers. Have you heard about the Pareto Principle? This Principle is also known as the 80/20 rule. The Pareto Principle, in business, refers to the way 80 per cent of a profit from a business comes from 20 per cent of its’ customers. Business owners, who subscribe to the 80/20 rule, know the best way to maximize results is to focus the most marketing effort on that top 20 per cent. Do you know who your top 20 per cent of customers who spend more than the other 80 per cent are? When did you last ‘do something’ for each of them? When did you last ‘thank them’ for being regular clients? When did you last give them something to let them know how special and important they are to you? In the last hotel we owned, in Bondi Junction in Sydney, we increased the turnover by 800 per cent in 10 years. I was often asked what was the ‘best marketing idea’ we used to achieve such a result. The simple answer was “The Pareto Principle.” During the Paris Olympics I was approached by a Sydney hotelier who knew I had written a book titled CHASING GOLD. He wanted to do something special, associated with the Paris Olympics, for his top 20 per cent of customers. He thought giving each of them a copy of CHASING GOLD would be the ideal gift to give them ‘after’ the Olympics. Assume customers were like footballers. Let’s say 20 of your ‘best customers’ spend only $50-$100 per week. That is approximately $2500-$5000
Max Hitchins is the Author of CHASING GOLD. Check it out at: http://bit.ly/BuyChasingGold
65 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Aug/Sep Edition
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