Home Shows-Do you do them? If you do, what your plan?

[Hoody]

Richard and others

What ROI have you guys seen from homeshows ?

Richard - I remember reading you guys overhauled your site not long ago. Have you thought of placing the offer on the website to drive traffic to it ? You could use your blog to do it so you don't have to edit anything on the main page. The only downside it doesn't make it as easy as a simple coupon handed right to them.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Steven that's a tough question and not easily answered mainly due to so many variables. For one we have never used it to sell carpet cleaning, in the past carpet cleaning was as small as 10% of what we did and one of the services with the smallest margin. So were were not there to get more carpet cleaning but to create an awareness and to show some separation from the other cleaning businesses.

After doing these things for many years I was about ready to hang it up just beacuse it was/is hard to see a return the way we were doing it. BUT that very year we got a $60,000 cleaning account because the facilities manager stopped by our booth and said he didn't know we offered commercial carpet cleaning.

It works well for us, it's just not immediate. Through the year we hear it time and again, "I visited with you at the homeshow about ...air ducts...carpet...mold". It's slow but it's always worth it. We were out of it for a couple of years when attendance dropped off but last year they had great attendance so we are back on the tour.

 

[Mardie]

The roi is not worth the cost if you are looking for a quick return.It is long and very slow. I did a job for a lady just before christmas that had one of my custom spotting bottles from 3 years ago. I had a big score on my first show when a lady that won a free carpet cleaning wrote an article in the paper about us.The phone just kept ringing and way more than paid for the show and the effects of that are still snowballing.Not so lucky on the following shows. It is good when your existing clients see you at a show.That way they see you as a real player.I dislike pretty much all forms of printed advertising for a service but i do think the shows give you a high level of legitamacy in the eyes of the consumer for what ever that is worth. At least one month before a big show i put a Hope to see you at the such and such show comming up with the shows logo on my home page. then after the show i put up a thank you for visiting us at the show and list the name of the winner of the free carpet cleaning for another month after the show.

 

[Mardie]

I don't do home shows. But, I do something that is a bit different. I go Were I won't have any competition. I go to some of the major corporations here during their noon hours and I set up a table in the lunchroom and talk to interested employees. They announce that I will be there to the employees before I get there.

I was going to do somthing like that exept i was going to rent space from a mall to set up my display in the corridors on weekends. Grocery stores rent machines so that is out.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We did a couple of shows in the mall that had an emergency services weekend. Bombed, while booth rental was low in cost the value from the show was even less. Too many shoppers from out of our service area, not to mention too many teens.

 

[Connor]

We did a couple of shows in the mall that had an emergency services weekend. Bombed, while booth rental was low in cost the value from the show was even less. Too many shoppers from out of our service area, not to mention too many teens.

Emergency Services Weekend? Oh, ya, I'd go to the mall for that.


What do you give away at your shows, Richard?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Everything and anything. For kids over the years we gave balloons, train whistles, popcorn, suckers, lolipops, paperhats. Adults, cheap stick pens for the trick or treaters, nicer pens for interested potential clients, pot scraper (no bawb not that kind of pot), coozies, jar openers, magnets, chip clips, for current customers or centers of influence we have given out pocket knives, nicer pens, pocket calculators, coffee mugs, theremal mugs that are put back put back out of site.