Home Repairs
Business offering more, reconnecting with customers

Atlanta Business Chronicle -
by Lisa R. Schoolcraft Staff Writer
Byron E. Small

Neal Creech saw his company go from building about six custom homes annually a few years ago to a near halt today.

Although home remodeling and renovation work has picked up the slack, Creech knew he was going to have to provide new offerings to drive more demand for his services.

Creech, owner and president of Buckhead-based Creech Custom Builders Inc., has become a certified energy auditor and now does home energy audits for new and current clients. The new offering, he believes, may add30 percent to his revenue.

But more importantly, the new offering, he believes, will allow clients to consider remodeling work alongside any energy-efficiency changes they make.

The down economy has forced many small-business owners to take a hard look at their companies and what they offer, and to add new offerings to either gain new clients or renew ties with current and former clients.

Creech, who has been a home builder for 11 years, saw his remodeling business increase as home building declined; he estimates remodeling work now accounts for 75 percent of his nearly $4 million annual revenue. But he also saw customers concerned about saving money.

In an energy audit, Creech takes about two hours to check a home for air leaks, improper insulation and other things that can cause higher energy bills.

Georgia Power Co. provides some incentives to homeowners to have the energy audit and to upgrade a home to be more energy-efficient, Creech said.

Ultimately, he hopes his energy audits can drive more customers to consider remodeling their homes.

Business owners can shift focus without sacrificing core values, said Elke Martin, president of The Brandware Group Inc., a marketing and publicrelations firm.

“Soaring fuel prices last summer meant a fast refocus from style and Italian heritage to fuel economy for our client Vespa,” Martin said.

This year, with gas no longer $4 per gallon, but consumers worried about personal finances, “our brand communications [for Vespa] have shifted to included tangible benefits,” she said, “such as savings thousands of dollars by swapping four wheels for two.”

Creech’s approach is exactly what many small-business owners should be doing to gain more customers, said Michael Kogon, principal at marketing firm Definition 6 LLC.

A full-service auto mechanic, for example, should be offering things like fuel efficiency inspections or air conditioner unit inspections to customers.

Giving customers a sampling of a product or service “is a good strategy for a small business,” Kogon said. “You see it all the time in the food industry.”

Food chains like KFC recently offered free grilled chicken to drive customers back to the stores.

A sample offering of a product or service can be “a more cost-effective way for the customer to sample your full offering,” Kogon said.

Finding new customer channels

For VeinInnovations of Atlanta LLC, new patient visits declined in the final quarter of 2008, said President David Martin. New patient visits translate to revenue 60 to 180 days later, he said.

VeinInnovations, a Buckhead-based elective health-care company specializing in venous disease, offers laser therapy, sclerotherapy and endovascular closure techniques.

“Our response was rather than increasing our advertising, we began to remarket to physicians” for referrals, he said. Physicians had always been a part of referral business “but we went back to reminding them. That has made a huge difference to us.”

In 2008, VeinInnovations had 370 new patients, and for 2009, Martin is projecting 500 new patients.

“The bulk of [new patients come from] physician referral, which is good for a medical practice,” Martin said.

Companies should seek ways to target new customers through different channels, said Brandware’s Elke Martin.

“If you built your brand for a specific customer segment, consider how you might market it to a new audience without re-inventing it,” she said.

For example, Ownersite.com, an online alternative to the traditional spreadsheet method of documenting fuel usage and vehicle maintenance, successfully shifted focus to B2B customers in addition to its consumer offerings, Elke Martin said.

Both she and Kogon caution of a pitfall in offering a lower-cost sample or service.

“You don’t want to cheapen your image to get people to try it,” Kogon said. “You don’t want to make it a come-on sale.”

The offering should be a lower price, but as a trial offering, not a lower price for the whole service. “If you used to offer whole house cleaning for $500, but now you do one room for $50, that’s a good thing,” Kogon said. A bad business decision is to offer the whole house cleaning for $350 now, he added.

“That’s price cutting and totally different than a trial offer,” he said.

Top dos and don't

• DO stay relevant
• DO define and
• build on company’s core strength
• DO target new customer channels
• DON’T neglect research
• DON’T cheapen the offering by cutting prices, but DO consider offering product or service samplings at a lower price