Tag Archives: Shopping

Marketing Your Auto Body Shop With a Referral System

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There are many reasons to implement a website for your auto body shop business. An online presence is never a negative thing, as you can reach out to a much greater number of possible clients and advertise inexpensively. Auto body marketing can occur in many ways. You can advertise online and off. One offline marketing method is to use a referral system. Many benefits can be yours with such a system and there are certain strategies within the method that work the best for the collision repair industry.

The benefits of a referral system are far reaching. The first notable benefit is that a greater amount of customer assistance, relationship development and loyalty improvement can be had with a referral system. Also, such a system grows with time, so you will see a sequential increase of referrals after each year passes. You can appreciate all these benefits within your auto body shop while at the same time saving your employees time, giving them a greater opportunity to spend their time doing more useful things for the collision repair industry. Strangely, even with these obvious benefits, many marketers do not view it as a serious auto body marketing method. You can see how much of a myth this thought is when you put it into practice for yourself.

To start a referral system for your auto body shop, learn what works the best for the collision repair industry. Many businesses today, when implementing this system correctly, can offset one-fifth, one-half or even all of their yearly advertising efforts. If a company can reach the point of generating business with 100% referrals, the auto body marketing fund will practically be zero, allowing the saved funds to either become increased profit for the owner or put toward other elements to better the shop.

When you set up your business to reward customers for referring their friends, you have an increased probability that it will work, in the collision repair industry or virtually any other. The rewards and financial benefits you can see in your auto body shop are undeniable, no matter what angle you look at setting up a referral system in addition to or even to completely replace your other auto body marketing efforts. No matter exactly how you choose to implement a referral system in your business, the general purpose is to assist people in loving your service enough to tell their friends and family “what is so great” about your business.

Online Shopping – Stress Or Therapy?

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“Seeking and finding just the right items for you, family members and friends is a pleasure-filled experience. Women often envision a wide range of possibilities – comfort, delight, or perhaps knowledge – that the gift is meant to provide, often investing large amounts of time making their choices.” This quote was taken from Shopping As Therapy: Good Health Comes In Small Packages, By Pat Hyland. I actually stumbled across this article while looking through health.discovery.com. It was fascinating to me. I always tease with my husband that he is the hunter/gatherer of our marriage; however, maybe he is not the only one!

The article also included this quote, “We use shopping as therapy, reward, bribery, pastime, as an excuse to get out of the house, as a way to troll for potential loved ones, as entertainment, as a form of education or even worship, as a way to kill time”. This was taken from Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill. I think the entire concept of shopping therapy may have merits. From what I have observed, we do not need to leave the house to help ourselves feel better.

Online shopping can give us the same experience. As a woman who does not have a lot of daylight hours to devote to malls and department stores, I love internet shopping. In my younger days I would have had a great time searching through rack after rack for the perfect piece of clothing, on sale of course. Now that I have more responsibilities I do my trolling while on lunch at work or in some spare time at home. I may not leave the “store” with a bag full of goodies but I feel great nevertheless. I get to feel the excitement and joy of my purchase all over again when the package containing my efforts arrives.

Of course, this does not mean that we need to jump on the internet and spend ourselves silly. As with anything good, take it in moderation. Be sure to stick to your budget. Half the fun of using the internet is the opportunity shoppers have to make sure they are getting a good product at the best price. That is our hunting phase, so make it count! Granted, once we have found a few sites that we like and know are reputable it is normal for us to stick to our comfort zone.

Shopping can also be a good learning experience. I have a teenage daughter who probably would like to see shopping become some sort of Olympic event. Thankfully, I have a sister-in-law who agrees and they can hunt together. She would like to work me over at least once a week for shopping money. Shopping for school clothes is the big fall event at our house. Last year I tried an experiment. I gave her a chunk of money and she had to get what she needed out of it. She came home with some great buys and some not so great buys that she had to live with for several months. This year she checked the internet for great deals before she did anything else. She stretched her dollars much farther! Shopping for therapy or fun, either way works!

Online Shopping – Stress Or Therapy?

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“Seeking and finding just the right items for you, family members and friends is a pleasure-filled experience. Women often envision a wide range of possibilities – comfort, delight, or perhaps knowledge – that the gift is meant to provide, often investing large amounts of time making their choices.” This quote was taken from Shopping As Therapy: Good Health Comes In Small Packages, By Pat Hyland. I actually stumbled across this article while looking through health.discovery.com. It was fascinating to me. I always tease with my husband that he is the hunter/gatherer of our marriage; however, maybe he is not the only one!

The article also included this quote, “We use shopping as therapy, reward, bribery, pastime, as an excuse to get out of the house, as a way to troll for potential loved ones, as entertainment, as a form of education or even worship, as a way to kill time”. This was taken from Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill. I think the entire concept of shopping therapy may have merits. From what I have observed, we do not need to leave the house to help ourselves feel better.

Online shopping can give us the same experience. As a woman who does not have a lot of daylight hours to devote to malls and department stores, I love internet shopping. In my younger days I would have had a great time searching through rack after rack for the perfect piece of clothing, on sale of course. Now that I have more responsibilities I do my trolling while on lunch at work or in some spare time at home. I may not leave the “store” with a bag full of goodies but I feel great nevertheless. I get to feel the excitement and joy of my purchase all over again when the package containing my efforts arrives.

Of course, this does not mean that we need to jump on the internet and spend ourselves silly. As with anything good, take it in moderation. Be sure to stick to your budget. Half the fun of using the internet is the opportunity shoppers have to make sure they are getting a good product at the best price. That is our hunting phase, so make it count! Granted, once we have found a few sites that we like and know are reputable it is normal for us to stick to our comfort zone.

Shopping can also be a good learning experience. I have a teenage daughter who probably would like to see shopping become some sort of Olympic event. Thankfully, I have a sister-in-law who agrees and they can hunt together. She would like to work me over at least once a week for shopping money. Shopping for school clothes is the big fall event at our house. Last year I tried an experiment. I gave her a chunk of money and she had to get what she needed out of it. She came home with some great buys and some not so great buys that she had to live with for several months. This year she checked the internet for great deals before she did anything else. She stretched her dollars much farther! Shopping for therapy or fun, either way works!

The Best Ways to Save Money When Shopping for Furniture

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Next to buying a new car buying new furniture for your home can be the most stressful and expensive purchasing decisions you can make. First off because the price for furniture is so high. Secondly, since you will be using your furniture quite a bit, you will always be around using it reminding you of your buyer’s regret if you have any.

The best piece of advice you can have is to take your time and don’t be in a hurry to buy the first thing you see. It’s the best thing you can do in order to stay on budget. Retail stores that sell furniture market their products to attract that impulse buy of me and you. Think about it. How often do you really go shopping around in furniture stores? Are there really that many average consumers who are aware of furniture prices? I don’t think so. Selling furniture is built around this principle.

There is hope and a few ways to easily save money when buying furniture. Here are just a few of the simple ways you can go about spending less on furniture the next time you go shopping for that new couch.

  • Look for sales – January and July are best known for their furniture sales and are thus the two best months to find bargains when shopping. If it’s outside or patio furniture that you are looking for, hold off till August or September if you can. You’ll find many retailers selling what seasonal items they have left at deeply discounted prices.
  • Try out some outlets – If you’re lucky enough to live near a furniture outlet center, then you have the chance to save some big bucks. Many regional and national furniture retailers sell discontinued, distressed and returned merchandise at these outlets at considerably marked down prices. Even if you’re not in the market for any new furniture, try and visit these outlets regularly. You’ll never know when you may find a deal on something that is too good to pass up.
  • Browse the internet – Let’s say that you and your significant other are window shopping for furniture and see something you REALLY like. Before you go making a purchase, check online first. Do a search for the manufacturer’s name and the model or model number of the piece you liked. Don’t forget about other charges any possible taxes assessed and what types of shipping costs will be added on. Furniture is not light and neither will be the costs of shipping a couch.
  • Buy directly – There are some furniture dealers and manufacturers who sell directly to consumers. If you live within a close distance to a dealer you can shop directly there or try looking in the back of home design magazines for ads of dealers who also sell direct.
  • Go with used furniture – A more practical and sometimes cheaper approach to buying furniture is to buy used at a resale or consignment shop. These types of stores can be found in most cities and often times hold gems not found in any major retailer.