The other day at a self-serve gas station near my office there were several guys washing the windows of the cars that came in for gas. They were doing it for free. Nice gesture, right? Yep! But even more than that they were offering windshield repair and replacement. The repair was done ‘on-the-spot’, pretty cool. Up here in Minnesota a chip can easily become a crack, so fixing that kind of thing makes a lot of sense. They also made appointments for on-site or in their shop windshield replacement.
What an awesome way to get more business. They didn’t wait for customers to come to them. And by doing something nice, they got to get up close and personal and physically examine the windshields. The cynical might say they were only being nice to get something, not true. Many people didn’t need anything, but still got to drive away with clean windows and a “have a nice day!” The people that did need some kind of window repair were offered a super convenient opportunity to get it fixed. Everyone came out ahead, even the gas station owner was able to at no cost to himself, give extra value to his customers.
So what could you do with your business to go to where your potential customers are?
How about a jewelry store in a mall? Set up a table, just outside your entrance, clean passersby jewelry for free. You could examine it to see if it needed repairs, or suggest an upgrade.
Back at the gas station, if you owned a tire store nearby, you could go and check the air in peoples tires. You’d have the opportunity to inspect the tires and offer services. They actually used to do that all the time at all gas stations before there was just self-service! Funny how times change, gas stations used to help you take care of your car, now they just sell you gas, candy and soda. And one really big thing is you would really be serving a lot of people, because most people drive on under-inflated tires, you might even save a life!
Where are your potential customers? How could you reach them in a unique, memorable way? Think about it.
