Kelly's Korner - Are you a Fred Flintstone or George Jetson?

Hey, All,

So you've got a smart phone to stay in touch with your friends and family and a new tablet that you can stay in touch with the world - but what about your business? How do you keep track of your inventory, customers or paperwork?  How do your customers find you?

The Fred Flintstone businesses still rely on the Yellow Pages, have no computer to help with inventory, billing, ordering and research and barely have a fax machine and do everything by hand.


Creative Commons license on image.

The George Jetson businesses have websites that their customers can use to find out information on the company and schedule appointments.  All their accounting information is on the computer and easily accessible and ready for tax time; their parts people/technicians can look up their own parts and don't have to wait for research.  Their customer base is on there also, and easy to bring up when Mrs Jones calls about her washer - all the info you need is there, all you need to do is set up an appointment time.

Research shows that over 80% of people today look for products and services on the internet.  Websites are relatively easy to set up and change as needed - like offering specials, company news, pictures, information, etc.  With a Yellow Page ad you are stuck with the same ad for a year and it costs a bunch of bucks.

Now this is not to say that we here at W L May won't be here for you - we have been for the last 90 years and will be here for the next 90.  But we are wanting our customers to increase their business and we have lots of ways for you to do this.  Talk to your account manager and we can give you infomation on who best to go to to set up a website, organizations to join, and other ways to increase your bottom line.

Give us a call and move out of the Stone Age and into the 21st century!

Have a great week!

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Is Christmas Creep Good or Bad for the Repair Business?

Here we are in the middle of November. Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is almost 2 weeks away. When I turn on the radio, or browse the internet I am seeing more and more ads for "holiday" sales. Every year it seems that the adverstising starts a little earlier. Journalists have dubbed this phenomenon "Christmas Creep".

To be clear, I love the holiday season and always enjoy making merry with friends and family in December. The decorations and music always make me happy-I am no Grinch! However, when I was younger, the annual holiday advertising onslaught began on Thanksgiving or the day after, and it just wasn't done to advertise for Christmas and the other holidays before them. Obviously, times have changed.

The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving are traditionally some of the busiest times of the year in an appliance service company. Lately I have been pondering if this Christmas Creep is impacting the work flow of the appliance repair industry. It seems likely that moving the holidays to the front of consumers minds should increase foot traffic into the stores of those repair companies that are associated with an appliance dealership. That can't be a bad thing.

What does not seem so obvious to me is how the phenomenon might change the service world. As we see more holiday advertising, it seems that less promotion is being dedicated to Thanksgiving. Will that decline in Thanksgiving promotion cause a decline in the number of service calls in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving? I don't know. I have observed that with less reminders the last minute rush seems to be gaining momentum during the last few years. Is that the result of Christmas Creep? Or is technology and the increased speed of modern life the cause? Or could there be some other cause?

Regardless of the causes, there does seem to be more of a last minute aspect to the Thanksgiving than ever before. This leaves servicers with the challenge of anticipating those last minute needs, and making sure that they are ready to provide their customers with those late requests. If you are servicer reading this, now is the time to make sure you are ready with appropriate stock on hand. If you are a consumer reading this, do yourself and your servicer a favor. Call your repair company earlier rather than later. This will be one less thing to deal with just before your big feast.

Have you seen any changes that seem to be caused by Christmas Creep? Do you think that holiday adverstising should wait until after Thanksgiving? Or maybe, do you appreciate the reminders so you can start your gift shopping earlier? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Wednesday Web Tools-Making Your Brand

Appliance Repair is an interesting business. A guy with some knowledge and tools and limited capital can
start a bootstrap business working out of his own vehicle part time. On the other end of the scale you find a well organized large operation that has a retail parts counter, a well stocked inventory, and a fleet of fairly new well maintained service vehicles. And in between there are all sorts of combinations of partnerships, family businesses, and professional independent servicers. But one thing they all have in common is a brand.

Creative Commons license on image.

What is a brand? A brand is simply the image you put before the public. A brand is something you have whether you realize it or not. Your brand could be as simple as "that guy who knows how to fix stuff for cheap". And you know what, that brand will often allow for some success. Especially if you are a nice guy and you do good work. That can be a limiting brand too. Think about it for a moment, if you are the "cheap guy" you will have some customers that LOVE you it's true (who doesn't like a value). But, being the cheapest servicer reduces your profit per job, you have to work longer hours to make ends meet. Now to be clear, I am not suggesting you overcharge your customers, but if your only brand is the "cheap guy" you will quite possibly find yourself undervaluing your services and parts sales. If you do that for long enough you will eventually probably run out of money. Sadly, we've seen it happen.

My point here though, isn't to pick on the "cheap guy" there are a lot of really nice guys who manage to scrape by that way. I am trying to make the point that we all have a brand, whether we conciously work at it or not. Many of the most successful companies we are seeing these days have taken the smart strategy of developing their companies brand. In the past a nicely painted service truck with a matching yellow pages ad was perhaps all the branding a service business needed. But those days are fading fast. Do YOU still use the phone book? If you do, I salute your traditionalism, but you are one of the last few. With no phone book how can you get the message that you are available for repair work out into the community? A great way is develop your brand.

I am not a self branding expert by any means, so I suggest a google search of the term "personal branding" for a host of articles on the topic. What I do have is a great perspective to see how a good brand can effect the success of a repair business. The most successful companies that we see staying very busy have taken the time to cultivate their brand. Some people see the flashy logo paint jobs on their service vans assume that they were just spending lots of ad money. Generally there is a lot more going on contributing to the success of these companies. They all share the fact that they utilize numerous ways of developing their image, or "building their brand". They generally are well aware of the fact that most people these days find out about products and services through the internet.

The tricky thing to consider is, it isn't always by using Google or some other search engine that folks get answers from the internet. Consumers ask their friends for advice (often on social media siteslike facebook or twitter) or see who looks the most reputable online (at review sites suchas angies list or yelp). For a repair company to ever get hired by a customer, the fist step is to establish the trust and confidence of his potential customer. For that reason, many of these companies have created blogs about appliance repair that allow there potential customers to get to know them and establish a level of comfort before a customer will invite them into their homes. A presence on social media, if well thought out and implemented effectively, also can do a lot to increase your reputation in the community. Another teqhnique is to encourage your customers to leave reviews on popular sites like angies list or yelp. Oh and by the way, the more of this stuff you do, the better you will likely show up on when people search on Bing or Google or Yahoo or whatever.

My suggestion is to put some thought into the brand you want to project and take one step this month to making it a reality. Do it again next month. And so on. Don't go overboard. Remember, your prime directive should be serving your customers. But stretch yourself a little. Explore some parts of the internet you haven't looked at before, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Allow your self some play to become comfortable with features and "feel" of these websites. Check out some your interests, check out your competition. I know some of us older guys just don't have much to say sometimes, but putting forth the effort can lead to rewards. Ultimately you should find yourself with a larger pool of customers, you might make more money, and you might even have more fun!

Thursday Tech Tip: How To Alienate Customer and Drive Away Business

Usually here on the W.L. May blog we often try to share tips and suggestions to help build your business and be more profitable. Maybe that's not your thing. Today we offer some tips that can help if you want to drive away customers and lose repeat business.

• Be hard to reach. Don't answer your phone and don't return calls. They say time is money. Don't let a potential customer take that away from you, after all they probably want your help or something.
• Make an appointment-but don't show up on time. So that pesky customer managed to track you down, now what? To make sure they are unhappy, set up an appointment. This works best if it is an inconvenient time for them. Let them know they need to be there and then don't show. Don't bother calling either. They'll call you to reschedule if they want to get their machine fixed.
• Arrive dirty and/or smelly. You know you are probably going to get dirty while you fix a machine, and honestly you were up kind of late last night so why bother showering and putting on clean clothes just to get dirty. Don't forget, you are doing them a favor by fixing their machine. So if you smudge some oil on their counter or smell like b.o. plenty, that is their problem. If you are smoker, light up while you do the repair. If they want to have a clean house they can clean after you leave. You do repairs, you aren't a maid!
• Look like an amatuer. There are several ways to do this. First, don't wear a uniform. A uniform can make you look like a pro. Now think about your service vehicle. Leave off the identifying signs. Those will probably just cause others to call you for repairs. At  the home, make sure and park in their driveway. For real style points and to create that extra  "I don't care about you" effect, make sure your service vehicle is leaking fluids. 
• Don't actually do a repair. Bang around a little bit. Scratch your head a bit and tell them what a unique problem they are having. Give them a real high quote for doing the job and suggest that they would be far better off to replace the unit. Give them an invoice for your "diagnosis" collect your fee preferably a high one and payable only in cash.

So that's it. While we are obviously kidding that you would want to hurt your business, it is true that if you follow these tips you can do a lot to chase away new business. If you would rather grow your business, look elsewhere on this blog for advice and check out our Facebook page for other news and tips as well.

Thoughtful Thursday: Facebook Roundup

As many of you are aware, W.L. May Company has made a commitment to helping to keep you informed about the appliance industry, with an emphasis on parts and repairs. We also are committed to the success of your company during these changing times that is the information revolution. This blog is one way we have been trying to share our knowledge and experience with you. Facebook is another way.
Here is a quick roundup of articles that have been shared on Facebook in the last month. For more of this kind of information make sure to "like" us on Facebook and visit us there often.

We told you about some new products in development.

• Whirlpool announced a new line of wi-fi smart appliances. Link
• GE Announced a refrigerator with a built in hot water dispenser. Link
• The web site Gizmodo told us about a device that uses ultraviolet light to disenfect your dishwashers interior. Link
• Consumer Reports gave good grades to Whirlpool & Maytag for the operating times on their front loaders. Link

We shared information about the business side of the appliance industry and the major manufacturers.

• GE announced the production of front load washers in the U.S. ,which they have never done before. Link
• Electrolux shares hope that an improving housing market in the US will offset sluuggish growth in Europe. Link
• A letter to USA Today talked about changes at Whirlpool and a growth of their bottom line. Link

Sometimes we share tips for home owners and the DIY crowd.

• We found some tips for cleaning refrigerators. Link

Information about running your business can be helpful. Here are tips for managing people and also technology.

• Great Leadership explained the importance of satisfied employees and how being penny-wise can sometimes be pound-foolish. Link
• We found an article that gave some practical advice about computer passwords. How to create very safe passwords for a variety of web sites and even more importantly, how to remember them! Link

Since it is Facebook, we also found some information to help your business use social media in its marketing mix.

• PostRocket talks about Facebook's EdgeRank. How it can limit who sees your Facebook posts, and how to maximise your exposure on Facebook. Link
• While, W.L. May encourages the use of social media in your marketing mix. It is not without some risk. This article from Dashburst examines a few things to be careful of if your are "going social". Link

Web Tools Wednesday: Best Times To Post to Social Media

Recently I read a few articles that I felt were worth sharing with those of you who are utilizing social media to reach your clients. They both discuss the best times to make posts on various social media platforms. To reach an optimum number of readers, certain times of day work better than others. The URL shortening site bitly is in a unique position to observe what times of day generate the most clicks on links that are being shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. From their article:

Did you see those silly cats on Tumblr, that breaking news on Twitter, and those photos of your friend’s kids on Facebook? Different social networks have their own distinct personalities. Bitly links are shared across all social networking services, giving us a unique viewpoint on how these networks differ.

We track metrics like the main type of content being shared on a network, the geographic locations of the people sharing and viewing the content, and how the popularity of the network has risen and fallen compared to other networks.

Creative Commons license on image.

While bitly has access to some powerful analytic tools, this article suggests that there are a lot of variables that can effect the effectiveness of your posts or tweets. From the article:

This commonly stumps many business owners. Have you ever heard someone claim, "9am is the best time to post on social media"? Hopefully they'll follow up with, "but it depends on your business and your industry." If they don't, you'd better raise an eyebrow in suspicion. My question is, 9am is the best time in whose time zone? The truthful answer is, the best time to post depends on many factors unique to your business such as industry, your particular set of followers, time zone, and whether or not your content is engagement-worthy.

Who is right? Well, there is no dispute that bitly can determine what has worked well in the past. However, nothing stays the same on the internet for very long and the second article makes some persuasive points that indicate your mileage may vary from the recommendations made by bitly. No matter which side is correct, they consensus is that if you want your posts to reach the greatest number of followers and have the most impact, then you want to post when your readers are likely to be online and see what you have put out there for them. As a bonus tool to refer to, here is a "clock" showing trends throughout the day as provided by the bitly research.

Truck Stock Thursday: UEI Meters

UEI Meters by goldenroad66

Web Tools Wednesday: Facebook for Beginners

Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Facebook. Facebook this, Facebook that. It seems like everywhere you turn these days people are talking about Facebook.What is Facebook, and does it have a place in the way your business goes to market?

In case you somehow don't know, Facebook is the world largest social network. As of March 11 of this year they report 963,812,360 users worldwide and almost half of them are in the United States! What are all of those people doing? Well, they are sharing what they are doing and what they like with their friends and they are seeing what their friends like and are doing. In other words, they are communicating with each other. Like any form of communicating, some is serious, some is joking, some is important and relevant and some of it is just chatter. But it is communicating, and isn't that what you want to do with your customers?

How this works is the users post to their status update whatever it is that they want to share, such as comments, pictures, links, etc. Facebook then takes what it considers to be the most interesting posts and presents them in a timeline that is constantly updated as new items are posted. Each user sees a different timeline based on who their friends are and the subjects they have clicked the "like" button on. You can then indicate that you "like" what has been shared by clicking on a "like" button at the bottom of the the post, or you add your own 2 cents by commenting at the bottom of a given post. This is where communication occurs.

There is no charge for setting up a Facebook account. When you create an account with Facebook, you will create a profile for yourself-as an individual. If you are approaching Facebook as a tool with your business, you might be tempted to set up an account in the name of your business. I would recommend against that. Facebook allows you to create a page for your business separate from your personal profile. In fact, to set up your account where your main profile is your business actually violates the Facebook terms of service. If they catch you, they can close down your account and all of your work on the site would be lost.The thing to do is to set up a profile for yourself as an individual, then create a Facebook page for your your business-take the time to make fill out your business pages profile. Include hours, what sort of business you do, areas you cover, brands serviced, and any other about your company you would like to share. You will also be able to include a picture for the header at the top of your page as well as your "Face" that will show up alongside all of your posts. This will introduce yourself to people who visit your page. Creating your business page allows you to stay within the Facebook terms of service. It also has an advantage in that Facebook pages are publicly viewable and can show up on search engines, like Google or Bing. You want that!

Now that your page has been created you will want to get involved. Take some time to find and "like" pages that are relevant to your business or would be of interest to your target customer. For example, our timeline includes customers, suppliers, and a few local sports teams and news outlets. Now why would we include the sports teams and local news? It's because if we find a post worth commenting on or "like"ing from them, our reply will reach everyone who follows them on Facebook which could be exposure to people who were unaware of WL May prior to that communication. A well known member of the United Servicers Association follows Susan G Komen Run for the Cure and the local sports radio station. By doing that he has found an way to reach many of the women and men in his community. What's nice is he is meeting them while their appliance is working (under good times) and it helps establish trust (which is essential to any sort of repair specialist). This works best (some would say it works ONLY) if you are engaging with other users. You don't wan't to just post ads about your business, take the time to post interesting items and to comment on others posts. An occasional advertising type of post is ok, but less than 20% of your activity should be that kind of thing (ideally much less).

As you can see, Facebook can help your business reach out to your community in a number of ways. However, Facebook is not a one-size-fits-all way of reaching your marketplace. It has a few disadvantages. First it does take some time to set things up and to monitor your page, although in my experience that process was fairly fun and interesting. Once you are set up, in order for someone to see your posts they need to take the time to visit your page and click on the "like" button. Also, once they do that they may not see every thing you post on their timeline. They will see all of your posts if they visit your page, but many Facebook users primarily read what shows up in their timeline. Luckily, Facebook says how it chooses what to include in timelines. The have an formula they use called "edgerank" which gives your post a score based on a number of variables such as if you include video or images, how many followers you have, how frequently you post, and how much interaction you have with other Facebook users. So, in order to effectively use Facebook you need to engage yourself with your customers or followers. Also, as of late, Facebook has tried to increase their income by requesting payment to make sure your posts show up in your followers timeline. Is this worthwhile? The jury is still out on that one, but it does remove the attractiveness of free from the equation.

Facebook is a complicated subject and a Google search of "using Facebook for business" yields almost 2 BILLION hits. Obviously, there is a lot to say on the subject and I am just scratching the surface. Ultimately, there is no replacement for quality work and good service. Facebook just gives your customers the opportunity to share their positive experiences with your company. And it allows you to share ideas and tips with your customers which makes you a trusted expert. And isn't that what you want? The more you show show yourself to be an expert the more your business will grow. Don't be afraid to try something new and good luck out there!

Wednesday Web Tools: Where to find free images for your blog or Facebook

I recently read a blog post that left me a little concerned. The post was written by a "mommy blogger", who was sharing a cautionary tale. Her blog was a personal journal kind of site, not a for-profit business site. To keep her blog visually interesting, she liked to put some pictures on it to go with her writing. Sometimes she would use Google images to find pictures to use. Makes sense. Its easy, very searchable, and easy to download too. Then something went wrong. She got a letter from the attorney of a professional photographer. Now you might think that since she was just running a blog as a hobby that an apology and removal of the offending images would take care of the problem. It didn't. In the end, she ended up paying several hundred dollars to the photographer for the unauthorized use of the images.

Scary story. The reason I mention it is because this did not have to happen to her. She could have used pictures that she took herself. Unless she is as bad a photographer as I am. So what to do? Luckily, there are some inexpensive options out there. Even luckier, there are some free options too. Here are some of my favorites of those free options:

• Flickr Creative Commons-I think just about everyone on the internet knows what Flickr is. Any image on Flickr has the potential to be used, but make sure you have permission from the photographer to do so. Some photographers have already given you permission by way of a creative commons license. Make sure you read the license on the images page regarding its terms of use.
• Wikimedia Commons-This is a hit and miss option. Images are public domain that are used in Wikipedia. Some good stuff here although often more of a historical nature.
• Morgue File- I really like this site. They have lots of varied images available. The only catch is that images from here need to be modified if they are used.
• FreeDigitalPhotos.Net-Several thousand images are available from this site. You are freee to use the small size images but larger versions require payment.
• FreeMediaGOO.com-This site features an assortment of images, wallpapers and even some video clips. To be honest, I have not had the best success with their images matching my needs. Naturally, your mileage may vary.
• Photo Rogue-This site offers a twist from most stock photo sites. In addition to their library of stock images for use, you can request an image. Photographers that frequent the site MIGHT respond with images to match your request. Obviously, this would give you the opportunity to have some more unique images than might be available from some other sites. 
• stock.xchng VI-Over 100,000 images available here. The photographers set the terms, so read the fine print on an image you are interested in using.
• FreePhotosBank-This site does have some free images available, but my experience is that far more images listed on this site link to Dreamstime.com, which is a good site for inexpensive, but not free, stock images.
• Present Outlook-If you like the images with quotes like the kind we post on Motivation Mondays, then this site is for you. Lots if gorgeous photography with inspirational quotes. Oh and by the way, we make our own slides for Motivation Monday, so these will be different from the slides we have posted.

Excitement Building!!

Todd Shepard and I are preparing for our trip to ASTI 2013..Our excitement continues to build as we accomplish each task needed for a successful trip. What excites us most, is the fact that we will be with so many Appliance Service people who understand the importance of education. We can't wait to see all of you at this year's gathering..

Tuesday Tips: Partnering

Todays tip for service companies involves expanding your customer base. A great way to do that is by partnering with other organizations that also might reach your ideal customer for other reasons. For example, a successful company we know of partners with Susan G Komen for the Cure (breast cancer) to reach women and they partner with the local sports radio to reach men. This has done wonders in introducing themselves to people who might also have need for their services. Who can YOU partner with to meet new potential customers?

Creative Commons license on image.

LAST DAY TO SAVE $100

A great educational opportunity for companies and individuals in the appliance service trade. Its the Appliance Service Training Institute being held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL March 6-9, 2013. This really is a great training opportunity and From personal experience I can tell you early March is a great time to visit Walt Disney World and the Orlando area.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SAVE $100
Discounted pricing still available until Feb 15 with your parts distributors discount code-WLM001.
ONLY $449.00 for USA members after discount
4(really 5) days and over 120 hours of training with meals included.

Click here to view event summary and register or go here for the PDF.


Creative Commons license on image.

What service business owners said about previous ASTI events :

"I consider the convention to be a very valuable training event and place it high on my list of events to attend and to send my employees to. I was impressed with the level of professionalism that was evident with the trainers and organizers and highly recommend that this program be continued. Thank-you for the privilege of attending this convention." Martin Appliance

"This was a phenomenal event offering extraordinary opportunities for personal and corporate advancement powered by knowledge and networking. I am very excited about implementing the remarkable ideas and methods that I learned at ASTI and am very grateful for having the opportunity to attend this awesome event. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Alpine Appliance

"The ASTI was great! While I didn't attend very many classes, I did a lot of networking which proved to be very beneficial. I have had almost all of the classes offered, and mainly attended the convention for the networking aspect. You guys did a great job of pulling off this venture. Kudos to all for your hard work!" Paul's Certified Appliance

Fun Friday: Vintage Appliance Commercial

Here is classic commercial from the 80's for Highland Appliance. Think Red October meets Top Secret. Classic!

Fact for Friday: Product Testing

Consumer Reports explains how they test dishwashers for review. While they don't specifically make any brand recommendations, they do point out some factors to consider if you are in the market for a new dishwasher.

Tip for Thursday: Facebook Timeline

Your Facebook timeline can be a great read, but be aware not everything your friends post necessarily show up in your timeline (and not every thing you post will show up in theirs!) So the tip is to go to your friends pages (and pages you have liked) to look at their wall and see what you might have missed.