I’m teaching an intensive Fundamentals of Marketing course in Split (Croatia) at the moment. Today being Saturday I decided to take myself off to the pretty little town of Trogir on a boat operated by Bura Line. In theory the boat departs from a quay not far from the harbour masters building but at 9am this morning there was no sign of it. I asked at the information booth and the guy responded to my question by saying: “I’m getting fed up with people asking about the boat to Trogir. I’ve no idea where it’s leaving from.”
I went to the harbour masters office and discovered that it was leaving from a totally different quay some way off. I had just 10 minutes to get there – jumping over cables and zig zagging around people pulling suitcases.
I got there in time.
I was one of three people on the boat.
Now the first thing that occured to me was this – why don’t Bura Line have someone standing where the boat normally goes from to gather people up and take them to where the boat is berthed. And… leave an A Board saying which pier the boat is leaving from. I’m sure they lost a lot of revenue today because people couldn’t find them.
Always make it easy for your customers to find you.
Remember the mouse trap theory? “If a man can make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door” but as Emerson O.B. Winters remarked: “The manufacturer who waits for the world to beat a path to his door is a great optimist. But the manufacturer who shows his ‘mousetrap’ to the world keeps the smoke coming out of his chimney.”
Make sure you show your mouse trap to the world !
Make sure your target clients know where your boat is berthed !
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Thank you for sharing examples of how people can find us. Put in context with an explanation makes me able to picture it. Given me insight formy iwn blog.
Thanks!
I’m glad you found it helpful Shan. I intend to try and tie all my posts to something in real life so that I can use some photos and make them more visually interesting.
I have seen large corporations who don’t do this well. This is why I think small and local businesses can always do well. It is the personal touches, the little reminders and the special touches that can make their business soar!
I actually think most businesses slip up on this one Julie. Bura Line is a small company and they can’t afford to be losing customers. It takes an hour from Split to Trogir by boat and they have three a day. There is also a bus at least once an hour which takes the same amount of time. Personally I prefer the boat but the existence of buses gives people a choice. Yesterday I took their 2.30pm boat from Trogir to Split but they had to turn back as the sea was too rough for a small boat so they gave everyone a refund. They’d still burned up fuel during the 30 minutes we were out on the sea and they still have staff to pay.