June 2009: Tips from Tom Mazza
“The People Issue”

 

Communication from the Boss improves your company immediately
I spend a lot of time visiting limousine companies and interviewing the entire company. You cannot “consult” a client in my view if you don’t know the people who work there. From chauffeurs to car wash, reservations staff, owner’s family, I interview ALL of them. I ask them:

 

What do you like about your job?
What do you NOT like about your job?
What would YOU do differently if you owned the company?

 

Probably 75 percent of the time the biggest complaint workers have is lack of communication and information from the owner of the company.

 

Many times the owner cringes when he/she hears I am going to interview everyone. They think that the “worker B’s” will complain they are underpaid and overworked. Many companies have cut hours or wages and again, the owner believes this will be a prominent issue for their staff. Sometimes it is, but more often, it’s not.

 

Over and over again I find that the staff genuinely likes and respect the people they work for and they understand the down economy.

 

What they want more than ANYTHING in the world is for you to communicate with them clearly and directly on all matters that involve the overall health and future of the business. “ABC Chemical is our largest client and represents 30 percent of our gross revenue. If they close their offices in our area, we need to reduce our overhead substantially to remain viable. Here are our options…”

 

Give them information and give them HOPE! “Dear Staff, last week I was in Newark, NJ for a Tom Mazza Group meeting. I brought back some great ideas. We have 4 new companies that I believe will be sending us work and I had the chance to pop in our 2 Manhattan based accounts on Wednesday morning. Both companies see good things in coming months as far as company wide travel. We had to give an 8 percent earned discount on future business but it was an easy call in this economy. I also was THRILLED with all the positive comments about our team. Regards, The Boss.

 

Extend your “culture of communication” to your chauffeur team and you will be surprised at their reaction. “We have a chance to grab a hundred thousand dollar per year account but here is the discount we need to give this client across the board….”

 

Keep it simple, be consistent every day, and be an optimist.

 

Get Closer to YOUR Clients: A “Success” Plan in ANY Economy
When is the last time you popped in on a client or met her at the airport just to say “thanks” for your business or “How can we better serve you?” How about sending a quick note with a story about HER industry that you ran across?

 

Nobody wants to do business with a “salesman”. We want to interact with people who understand our business and help us fill a need. Getting out there and really listening to your clients is a great habit to get into. We normally advise our clients that 2/3’s of all sales efforts should be directed at people who have already used your service. “Pre qualified leads” is the term for them and they can be extremely fertile ground.

 

You also want to be able to suggest cost savings to your clients. Even if the suggestion is not implemented, kudos for you for being proactive and looking out for the paying customer. How about offering a 5% discount for booking on line then visiting them to demo the product?

 

Don’t want to “bother’ your clients by dropping in? How about attending social or charity events where YOUR clients attend? It is a great time to say hello and connect with them and you need not bring up business to be effective.

 

The bottom line is the more you connect to your clients on a personal level, the more they value what you do and the less likely they look at your service as a mere commodity.

 

Tom Mazza’s NEW GROUP Meeting July 29 and 30 in Philadelphia
On July 29th and 30th a group of great limousine companies will meet in Philadelphia for a 2 day “Success Group Meeting”.

 

The group meeting is a chance for Operators who were always interested in the “Success Group thing” to come and try it on for size. The program will include 14 hours of classroom instruction and facilitated group discussion. Bob Bellagamba, CEO of Concorde Worldwide in Freehold, NJ, will facilitate a session on limousine company finances. Bob, who has an accounting background, has more than 25 years experience in successfully managing limousine company finances.

 

Other group topics will include:

Building your sales through your current base
Price strategies to improve profitability
Reducing expenses without reducing service quality (Or, “do we really need that?)
Becoming a “national” company
Training, mentoring, and motivating your team

 

Call Tom today at 215-973-8201 or e-mail Tom’s assistant, Josh Blackler, Joshua.blackler@gmail.com if you are interested in coming to Philly in July. The cost of the meeting is $650 per attendee and includes the program plus 2 lunches, 1 dinner, and a group cocktail party. Target for group is companies doing more than $500k in annual sales. There is no “commitment” beyond the initial meeting.