News from Australia
Acland Brierty writes:
Hi Seth,
Loved your books and now discovered your blog. I have one story to share with you today along the “free prize inside” lines. A friend of mine has just set up a backpacker hotel in Melbourne. In order to get backpackers to talk about their hotel here is the free-prize they came up with… GIRLS!… if they could attract girls to the backpacker hotel then the boys would follow.
So they went to great lengths setting up girls dorms and private rooms with good security and -get this- pamper packs (moisturizer, masks, and other girly stuff). The boys dorms were pretty standard military affairs. The result was girls were checking in in droves to use the facilities… and the boys followed… as did the local boys as well hoping to get some Swedish loving.
So the place is packed out simply because of some hair products, face cream and foreign girls.
I have one more for you as well…
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Paddi Lund… he’s a dentist in Brisbane that shocked the dental world by firing his clients… he then halved his client base and doubled his profits and works half the time. You see, dentists have the second highest suicide rate of any profession. And one day paddi was going to work depressed as hell, and got to thinking… What do I hate about my business. The answer was most of his clients, the sterile environment… the whole drill, fill and bill process.
So he broke his clients into A, B and C clients. “A” clients loved what he did, paid on time and told their friends. C clients always complained, turned up late and bitched about his fees. So he wrote to all the C clients and told them to find another dentist. He then LOCKED his doors and put a sign up saying… if you’re a client, ring the bell we’ll let you in. If you’re not a client there’s a dentist up the road.
He then took an axe to his business and put in an oven and a cappucino machine.
Now here’s the best bit… The only way you could become a client of Paddis was someone had to REFER you. IN fact the referral bit was a condition of doing business with him. Before he would work on you he’d say… I’m going to give you the best dental treatment and in return I have one condition that you must meet… you have to refer at least 3 people to my business.
Paddi realised that getting A customers to refer their friends would simply generate more A customers… people have friends that tend to be like themselves… good payers etc etc.
He then had a Guarantee… the FREE PRIZE!… NO PAIN!… What do people fear most about dentists? Pain… by working with less clients and in a more relaxed environment he was able to take his time and that meant better pain control.
So that’s Paddi’s story… fired his clients, halved his workload and doubled his profits.
Interestingly, he has been asked to tour the USA many times sharing his vision of a FUN filled work place and has written a book about it.
Hope you have a great new year,