The following case studies are an attempt to illustrate area's were the HMA system has impacted various businesses.

Case Study Number One

High End Furniture Store

This furniture company manufactured its own furniture and sold it at a retail location. The owner is an artist by background, and would design the furniture for custom fit to homes and offices.

The business was succeeding primarily because of having been in the area for fifteen years and enjoyed a good reputation. The turnover had remain stagnant for the last five years.

The first step was in identifying the unique selling proposition as the only furniture store in the area that manufactured its own furniture and could customize the furniture to the customer's tastes. It was furniture using only the best quality Oak and Cherry hard wood and the furniture was totally guaranteed. If after the furniture was made and the customer didn't like it, the purchase was not obligatory. Also, the company established a USP of easy financing, making funding the purchase extremely easy . These combined USP's distinguished this furniture store from other competing stores.

The next step was to make certain that all customers details were recorded to establish a mailing list. Immediately the store started to communicate with these customers offering them furniture and items other than those it manufactured. It was the goal to sell more products that did not need to be custom made as time and resources were limited. So the message sent to these customers was that the same guarantee was behind all products that were brought in the store even if they were not made at there mill.

With 500 mailings, over £20,000 in revenue was generated. Net profit on the project in one month was over £7,000.

The store continued to capture names and a customer list grew from 500 to over 2,000 in the space of a few months.

The next strategy was to look at up selling. The sales people were letting customers come in and simply purchase what they wanted; By packaging the furniture into room sets the average sales increased 20% / 30%. People are inclined to buy what sales people promote.

We are now working on a formal referral system which during our initial test has achieved a 30% referral rate boosting sales by 40%.

The plan for next month is to streamline the manufacturing process to enable the factory to increase output without compromising quality.

Every month builds upon the previous months success - By the end of this year we expect to double the turnover and increase net profits from 5% to 10%.

Case Study Number Two

Clothing Store

Again, the first step was in determining a unique selling proposition. After looking the business over, it was learned that the store enjoyed exclusive distribution rights to certain quality lines of clothing. The store owner also determined they did not want to be in the discount business and carried only lines of clothing that were more upscale and of higher quality.

The store was also doing alterations for two or three pounds and they agreed to turn this into a unique selling proposition in offering all alterations free.

The store had in-house credit, and very experienced sales people with the average sales person having over seven yeas experience at the store. After examining the competition, it was determined that these characteristics were very unique from other clothing stores where employees seem to come and go.

All of these elements were combined as unique selling propositions.

Again, the first step was to begin communicating with the customer base. This clothing store had 2,000 or so customers that they were billing each month. The store started making offers to these customers generating over £15,000 in a couple of mailings. Net profit on these mailings was £5,000 to £8,000.

The biggest and most notable result from this case is that the storeowner was spending three thousand pounds a month on radio and newspaper advertising. After redirecting some of these monies to direct mail and communicating with the existing customer base, greater results were realized.

The next step was to work with the sales people in up selling. Rather than coming in and allowing the customer to choose a single item, the sales people were trained to relate the item that was going to be purchased with other related items to produce a complete outfit. In one month the average sale at this store increased from £25 to £55. This is the type of competitive edge a company can enjoy in a slow period.

The next stage was to introduce a joint venture with a local beauty parlor. We arrange for the beauty parlor to offer free manicures for new customers to help them build their business. In the cloths shop a special offer was set-up. Spend over £75 and receive a free manicure.

The special offer was the feature of all advertising and direct mail for a period of three months. The number of new customers increased and the average spend increased another 15%.

The beauty salon had hundreds of people try their service. At the end of the session they managed to sell the nail polished used which covered the cost of the service. In addition they converted over 40% of them into regular customers. This offer doubled the customer base for the beauty salon in just 10 weeks.

The company then began to identify their best customers and started to run a letter of endorsement scheme whereby these customers could offer special deals to their friends. This scheme is extremely popular and continues to grow the stores customer base very cheaply every month.

Case Study Number Three

Car Repair Facility

The owner of this garage was plugging along after eight years of operation and struggling to get into profit and only taking the same wage as his staff.

We first looked at what was working. The garage had set-up a relationship with a local cars sales organization and would check the cars over for them prior to them being sold and arranged for them have an MOT. The car sales company was extremely pleased with the service he got from the garage.

As this accounted for 30% to 40% of the business it was important to ring fence this customer and add other large customers. We took the checklist that was used in the garage and packaged it into quality checklist system to generate more business. The checklist was type set and a couple of additional items were added such as cleaning and body work check.

Once the car was checked over the checklist was attached to the window of the car. On the sales lot the potential buyer could see that a reputable independent garage had checked the car. This added value to the salesman and the prospect.

We then arrange that the garage wrote to all customers three months following the sale of the car. In the letter he asked if all was OK with the car (if not he would do his best to rectify the problem as he only wanted happy customers) and he then went on to talk about the importance of servicing and recommended our clients garage.

He also sent the details of the customer to the garage that would now mail after six months informing them that the service was now due on the car and stating that the sales organization had arranged a special half price deal on the first service.

The effect was very impressive. Firstly the garage managed to sell the Quality Check System to three other sales lots in the area increasing sales by over 80%. The sales organizations were happy that the checklist system improved their closing rates and business was up. They were very happy to recommend the garage to their clients. There was now a formal recommendation system with the three-month letter.

The six-month letter from the garage secures 30 to 40 extra cars as a lifelong customer every single month. The sales lot got customers phoning to thank them for the half price service offer from the garage (they did not pay a penny for this). This created loyal customers for the sales lot.

In addition to the above a new computer system was installed which recorded the history of every customers car. It sends out reminders for MOT’s, servicing, winter checks etc by email, SMS, fax or letter. It still surprises me that very few garages ever send you a reminder for an MOT or service. This system keeps the customers coming back time and time again and paid for it self within 5 weeks.

Now in new bigger premises the garage has become extremely profitable and has a great reputation locally. We have now been able to raise the prices and the business just keeps growing and growing thanks to the Quality Check list bringing in new sales from the four car lots.