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 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.
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.