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maggie720
Newbie
Joined: Dec 24, 2006
Posts: 5
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Dec 24, 2006 - 08:42 PM |
 
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| Post subject: how can i operate my SOHU business?help! |
I have some friends who deal with travel business, and i can use my "GUANXI" to help people to get hotel reservation and flight tickets at competitive price.
But the problem is, as a SOHU middle man, how can i let my potential customers believe i can really do a help for them? not rip them off!
I am considering to make a my own service website soon, but, at present, how can i let people trust my business? (they would like to contact me; when i arrange everything ok for them, they pay without any hesitation...)
If any one have a good idea or suggestion,please show me. thanks a lot! |
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Henry_Chinaski
Board Lord
Joined: Aug 16, 2003
Posts: 5025
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Dec 28, 2006 - 10:14 AM |
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You might first start by asking some tough questions about the viability of your business.
1-You already have a mega bucks competitor at a extremely high level with great prices, great service and unbelievable scale (ctrip). How can you compete with that?
2-The margin for your business is extremely low, unless you sell thousands of tickets you wont be buying a Santana any time soon
3-Anyone with a browser can google for hundreds of your competitors. If you don't have a website you will be shrinking your potential amount of leads tremendously
4-This niche is traditionally filled with scammers: people don't trust service providers in this niche so easily
Based on all that, your only chance is to grow your business on a personal basis, meaning getting each individual customer yourself and providing excellent service. Your only way of getting hot prospects before they google for similar services or find out about ctrip is to get referrals from people that used your service and recommend them to their friends.
You will need to have a "sacrifice early profits" mentality and think on the long run if you want to build trust and get those referrals, BUT, if you manage to build up a little core of passionate users, they will start telling your friends, and their friends, and so forth, and people will rather talk to you than try a new service from an unknown chump.
Basically speaking: you should plan your business on the assumption that money will come from repeat business, not from the first transaction, and that highest and most personal service will generate the leads for you (from referrals). This would decrease your marketing costs, although would take longer to get leads...(but these leads would be much hotter).
If you want to be like 99% of the people out there and screw the customer in the first transaction and always have to find new customers instead of making them beg for more, then go ahead, go luck, and dont count on my business.
Ok, some resources that will give you inspiration...
You could start with some stuff from Seth Godin, a very talented marketer...if not mistaken he gave away the electronic version of his books so you mind find these books in PDF format...
You might be interested in reading:
1-"Purple cow": about excellent companies that deliver more than what is expected
2-"Small is the new big": how small companies have the edge to deliver differentiated service
3-"Spreading the ideavirus": how can you make your users spread the idea about your products (EXCELLENT read)
4-"Permission based marketing": how the rules of marketing changed based on the advertising clutter of our age...
We already have too many scammers that think that just because they have a friend in a travel agency they can spam and bug and make a quick buck out of people. IF you want to go ahead with your idea, make something different...make something good, make something excellent that you can look back and feel that you are really adding value to people's lives through your service. We are already full of mediocre businesses out ther... |
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