Gassing Up The Imagination Engine
You want to grow your business and brand but don't want to spend big bucks on marketing.
You also compete on thin margins in an overcrowded category with a product many would consider "unsexy."
While the odds appear to be stacked against you, there is one trusty weapon you can rely on when waging war against your current reality.
The world of Logic has confines, boundaries and limits. The world of imagination is vast, boundless and unlimited.
Your business and brand are the perfect canvas for your imagination. You get to play Picasso. You decide on the brushes and what to paint inside the frame, especially if you want to make a splash with word-of-mouth marketing. If art has three primary colours there are also three primary ways to get people to recommend your business and go out of their way to become your customer.
It doesn't matter what category or industry you compete in. A little artistic flair goes a long way in creating a ripple that becomes a flood of business.
Upon our arrival in London, Ontario, seven years ago, we were surprised and delighted by what a small family business was doing to ensure a steady stream of happy customers. The story of this otherwise ordinary Canadian service station was first posted in 2016 on a blog dedicated to exploring the concept of reinvention. As you will soon discover, we are happy to report that Ron Kraft Auto Care is still the next best thing to man's best friend.
Join us at the corner of Huron & Clarke in London, Ontario and revisit Gassing Up Your Imagination Engine on Leaders & Legends.
"One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising." JIM ROHN
p.s... Here are some numbers that reflect the latest research about the power of "Word-of-Mouth Marketing":
• 90% of people trust suggestions from family and friends.
• Consumers discuss specific brands casually 90x per week.
• Brands that inspire a higher emotional intensity receive 3x as much W-O-M as less emotionally connected brands.
• Millennials are 115% more influenced by W-O-M than traditional ads.
Any well-conceived W-O-M strategy has the potential to skyrocket if you can delight your customer in a way that THEY want to be delighted. In other words, good or even great customer service isn't enough. Those are table stakes expectations.
There might be 400 service stations in Southwestern Ontario offering the same gas at about the same prices, but only Ron Kraft Auto Care looks after what the customer truly cares about. Dana and I will never forget that "WOW" feeling that first day driving into Ron Kraft Auto Care when Tom came over and asked if it was OK to give Theodore and Sophie dog treats. Not only were we delightfully dumbfounded that someone would actually be so kind and considerate to do that, but our business spidey-sense marvelled at the sheer brilliance of this simple idea. Many years ago, at the world-famous Wizard Academy in Austin, TX, founder and best-selling author Roy H. Williams revealed there are only three proven ways to plan and purchase word-of-mouth advertising.
It's a subject explored in greater detail in Chapters 4,5, and 6 of BIG LITTLE LEGENDS. In the case of Ron Kraft, you can connect their results to the concept of Abundant Generosity – giving without any expectation of return. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile, and while many business intellectuals like to treat consumers as just another statistic that drives a balance sheet, there will always be more than enough room for the savvy business owner who can see a customer is a real person with real emotions and feelings. And the smart ones like Ron Kraft also know that when more people show up to buy gas, it means more people are going to swing by for oil changes, brake jobs and other repair services, which multiplies the growth created at the pumps.
Whether you sell petroleum, piston rings, perfume or financial planning, there is always ROI when you can figure out how to serve the customer better than the other guy down the street. And if you surprise and delight them in a way they care about, don't be surprised when loyal customers go out of their way to swing by or, in the case of Antarctic Mike Pierce, travel thousands of miles just to see customer service magic with their own eyes.
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