Good Morning. This is the Method, where we share how we’re bootstrapping small businesses in New Zealand.

This weeks we’re looking at:

• A cheap marketing tactic🤝 

• Keeping more customers🗺️ 

The Worlds Cheapest Billboard

The cell phone home screen is the world's cheapest billboard, and millions update theirs with new looks every month.

In September, 260 people searched for motivational home screen wallpaper, 90,500 more searched for home screen wallpaper and another 2,740,000 for motivational quotes wallpapers.

That's why, after a conversation with a Rugby Bricks fan who couldn't wait to show us his new Rugby Bricks-inspired phone wallpaper. We decided to make our own and share them.

Here’s what we did.

We went to Canva and clicked "create wallpaper"

Choose an image from our content library (IG)

Uploaded our logo by selecting "uploads"> "upload files" and placed it in the corner.

and, when it made sense - we finished them off with inspirational quotes.

Note: 

We don’t have a big brand budget at Rugby Bricks - so we’re always looking for ways to get in front of our customers on the cheap.

Who knows how much these wallpapers drive sales, but in general the more impressions your brand gets - the higher up in your customers mind you sit, when they need to buy something you sell.

How To Keep More Customers

There's a saying in combat sports that goes something like "you're only as good as your last fight".

In business, this loosely translates to you're only as good as your last customer interaction.

Look at the blowback Air NZ have been getting online lately about their customer service call times.

For years, they were one of the World's best airlines, an emblem of Kiwi pride and an exemplary case study in aviation. A piss-poor call centre operation has undone all that in just a few months.

That's why requesting, acknowledging and acting on customer feedback is so important (which Air NZ is finally doing).

We do this at our Dunedin gym using NPS score surveys, CSAT surveys, and social media polls to consistently learn about what we're getting right and, more importantly, what we're doing wrong.

1. NPS Survey - Sent to every member that leaves

2. CSAT Survey - Sent to every member after 10 visits

3. Polls - Regularly posted in our community WhatsApp group

We get hundreds of responses a year from these surveys and polls, covering all aspects of our member's gym interactions.

The feedback - is automatically sent to our Slack channel for all to see & then discussed and addressed in weekly team meetings.

And we're rewarded for doing so. We have an active member rate of 75% and monthly churn below 4% (better than double industry averages).

Notes:

As a bonus the more annoyed someone is about something the more likely they are to complain about it.

The key is catching them at the height of their duress. Which is generally right after they’ve bought something or told you they’ll never be buying from you again.

As you can imagine some of our exit survey have been wonderfully brutal over the years and we’ve learned to enjoy every word of them.