| GETTING TO KNOW YOU
I’m sure that most of you would agree that the efforts made within
Sales and Marketing over the past twelve months have gone a long way to increasing and
improving the profile of Dial-a-Cab.
As an example, our impressive Call Sign Magazine is a periodical that our
senior customers have told me they actually look forward to receiving and in their words
is a credit to our company. The magazine seems to give the client a better understanding
of our business and a greater insight into the rather insular taxi trade.
Our new distinctive company logo is a vast improvement on the old and tired
looking bottle top, which was not always easy to identify and was not, in my opinion,
conducive in promoting Dial-a-Cab as a fast moving company who are reaching out for the
next millennium.
The national newspaper space which has been filled by Dial-a-Cab during the
last eighteen months, has been the envy of many within the trade with stories ranging from
Princess Diana having a DaC taxi account, to the now-aborted company flotation. In
addition, six cartoons that have appeared in the Evening Standard and which on each
occasion have shown a taxi with the name of Dial-a-Cab emblazoned on it may seem trivial,
but I can assure you that each caption, in its own way, has created a positive interest.
TRAVEL FAIRS
Whilst the above indirect PR has managed to touch hopefully, thousands - if
not millions - of people, we as company have recently been asked by two senior clients to
attend their |
own internal travel fairs where all employees,
whether they use taxis, planes or frequent hotels on business, were invited to attend and
speak directly with their companies preferred suppliers.
With these events in mind, a new multi-purpose stand was purchased which
projected the right corporate image along with several give-aways ranging from computer
mouse mats to pens and calculators which ideally are adorning several prominent desks
within Morgan Stanley and Robert Flemings.
Both events were successful but for totally different reasons. The Morgan
Stanley fair was positive due to the volumes of internal staff who chose to attend and
took the trouble to come to our stand and not only talk to us, but take the time to
complete an in-depth survey covering all areas of our service portfolio. Examples of other
exhibitors at the fair were British Airways, Virgin, Forte Hotels, Eurostar and Cathay
Pacific. Although the event at Flemings never had the same volumes, this allowed us to
talk to individuals on a more intimate basis which resulted in Dial-a-Cab being awarded an
additional department within Flemings which, up to the time of the fair, were using Mini
cabs. Another incident worth |
mentioning was
when Christine Beck, the Flemings account manager, was confronted by this rather buxom
blond who proceeded to crucify Dial-a-Cab, moaning about our response times, not being
able to get through on the phones and saying that when they have problems, no one is
prepared to listen. So, after taking without flinching this volley of abuse, Christine
proceeded to ask some searching questions - such as her departments account number and the
telephone number she used to phone for a taxi. At this we became rather confused because
we had failed to recognise either! Obviously noting our rather confused expressions, the
lady then said:
"Well, are you not the company that have recently spent millions of
pounds on this state of the art satellite system"?
Trying not to smile, we politely informed the lady of her mistake and
proceeded to extol the virtues of our company to which she promised to speak to our
contact and to set up an account!
EXPLOITING OPPORTUNITIES
With the help of Marketeer, our external public relations support,
Dial-a-Cab will continue to exploit every opportunity available to promote our name and
improve the market places perception of our business, as we all know that our service is
only as good as the last taxi booking we accepted, the last query we managed or the last
invoice we produced.
We come to accept that even though thousands may be spent on various
advertising campaigns, corporate hospitality and improved sales literature, our strongest
sales tool in the armoury remains our ability to serve our customer and to give that extra
10% if and when necessary.
David Adelman |
