1. Growth through acquisitions

Part of your long-term business strategy should be to grow through acquisitions as they present themselves to you. My company has done five acquisitions in the last six years, and it has allowed us to show significant growth without a serious outlay of capital. Acquisitions also allow you to collect valuable assets—not just personnel and vehicles, but those very important client contacts as well. Gasoline drives our vehicles, but a brand new, freshly minted client list from a recent acquisition is the real fuel that powers our success. Our most recent acquisition was a straight asset purchase which included the company’s customer list, website, and access to all its corporate business—a virtual goldmine.

2. Outside sales
Emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messages, and even Skype meetings all serve a purpose in our “not-enough-hours-in-the-day” busy business lives. But you should never ignore the power of that rare opportunity to shake a hand, pass a business card, or look someone straight in the eye without being filtered through a computer monitor. Join local ground transportation associations, be seen at limousine conventions, and make your presence felt at your local chamber of commerce. Build your brand by talking to people face-to-face. It’s something with which no fancy, high-tech, graphics-loaded website can ever compete.

3. Inbound affiliates
This just makes sense. If people are flying out of your city, then most assuredly they are also flying in, and you also want that business. Inbound affiliates are not to be taken lightly when you are putting together a business plan. In fact, they can be a major source of your revenue. For our company, six out of our top 10 clients are other limousine companies referring us their inbound work. More than $4 million of our annual revenue is a direct result of inbound affiliate sales. Do what you need to do to cultivate those important relationships, and do it right.

4. Outbound marketing
There are a number of key ways to reach potential clients, starting with good PR. Never think of yourself as being in the witness protection program: you want as many people to know about you as possible—in a positive light, of course. Send out press releases to local publications and trade and association magazines about the good you do in the community, charitable endeavors, new hires, acquisitions, bumps in your technology prowess, your green initiatives, etc. Send them your company newsletter, put them on your e-blast or e-bulletin list, drop them a postcard. If you are fortunate enough, utilize bylined articles and try to get your expertise on specific subjects printed in major trade publications that affect and impact your industry, such as Limo Digest. Then send the link to that published article far and wide. You can also utilize traditional outbound marketing avenues, such as print and online advertising, radio ads and direct mail pieces.

5. Inbound marketing
I firmly believe that inbound marketing today is what websites were 10 years ago. The sales process has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, when all it took to get in to see a client was a phone call and a briefcase. Or, if you were really lucky (and gutsy), you just knocked on their door unannounced. In the good old days that decision-maker would have been the president of the company’s executive assistant or the company’s travel manager. But in the era of company downsizing, a lot of travel decisions are being made in the procurement department. This means the person who now orders ground transportation has probably just gotten off the phone from ordering those plastic mats that go under office chairs.

So now you need them to come to you, which means you want to increase your Google presence and your social networking capabilities. Each month we do two blogs and one e-blast which are generated through our website and social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Then our sales team, each of whom belong to at least 50 social media groups (i.e. corporate travel planners, wedding planners, travel associations, etc.), send it to their contacts, and so on. Since we implemented inbound marketing, we have already seen the number of contacts who entered our company website through LinkedIn alone jump 35%. Finally, one of the most critical aspects of good inbound marketing can be summed up with two simple words—follow up. Companies like Hub Spot and Inbound Marketing Agents can be instrumental in helping you coordinate all aspects of your inbound marketing program.

“For the past year we have worked with John Greene at ETS to align their marketing and sales funnels into a lead-generation machine,” says, Bill Faeth, CEO of Inbound Marketing Agents. “But the key element is conversion, which requires targeted offers based on the leads buying cycle. You need to know your prospects and deliver the right information at the right time to get prospects to convert to customers.”

6. Customer service
I saved this for the very end because even if you hit a home run with the previous five suggestions, you are only going to wind up like “Casey at the Bat” if your primary focus isn’t on servicing the client. And I don’t mean just meeting their needs, exceeding their expectations. But keep in mind, those expectations will continue to grow. Travelers will continue to have high expectations as they search for better value. They’ll expect to be picked up by a well-trained and courteous chauffeur who shows up when and where he’s supposed to. He’ll know where he’s going, isn’t talking or texting on a cell phone during the trip, doesn’t have Van Halen blasting on the radio, and is quick to offer the customer a bottle of cold water and magazines that aren’t two and three years old (an astute observer once pointed out, “the back of a limousine shouldn’t look like a doctor’s office.”)

Chauffeurs constitute the direct link between your company and the client. They have to be friendly but not necessarily buddy-buddy. The client needs a knowledgeable, courteous, capable driver, not a new BFF. As someone once pointed out, “the biggest variable in terms of quality of experience is the chauffeur.”

So as you see, even without a GPS system to lead you to the financial promised land, there are ways—six in fact—to be successful in this tough, profit margin-thin industry. It’s a road that can be successfully navigated, even with all the obstacles seemingly looming ahead, if you use these six steps as outlined. And if you do, chances are that all those obstacles will soon be in your rear-view mirror, leaving a wide-open road ahead as you strive to build a successful ground transportation company. // LD

Contributed by John M. Greene

Social Media: Strength in Numbers 

Rogue apps, particularly Uber, move from city to city, quietly building their businesses. This divide-and-conquertactic has allowed them to fly under the radar while expanding. When the livery industry finally noticed, it pushed back the only way it knew how: by flexing its political muscle. Anticipating this move, Uber triggered a massive backlash through social media. How did the livery industry respond? With silence. We continue to wait for failing political action, but we do not have to—we can use social media, too.

Social media requires a large audience to be effective. It may be an insurmountable task to run your own social media campaign; these efforts will be more successful if companies pool their resources. Think of the famous “Got Milk?” campaign created by the Dairy Farmers of America. Limousine associations are perfect places for these types of campaigns to start at both the regional and national levels.

However, be aware that social media can seriously backfire. A social media campaign should highlight your benefits, not your competitor’s faults. While it is acceptable to use a competitor’s failure as a comparison point, it should not be the focus. Social media gone awry can drive consumers away, cast your company in a negative light and even evangelize consumers in defense of your competitor. Be prepared for unexpected responses and act quickly to stop or redirect failing social media attempts before they spin out of control.

And let’s never forget that we are not the bad guys. As a collective industry we are very large, but Uber, after recent investment rounds, has been valued at over $3.5 billion, far outweighing any single company in our industry. Uber is known to engage in some shady practices, such as gouging prices by raising rates at their own discretion during busy times, automatically billing the consumer and leaving no recourse. I do not, however, recommend attempting a smear campaign.

A better approach is to highlight our positive attributes, such as advanced bookings, which Uber does not allow. We can even extend the advanced booking capability to book anywhere in the world through affiliate networks. Advanced booking provides the peace of mind that the car will be there at the desired time. A savvy marketer can focus on these and the other differentiations discussed below to demonstrate why your company is the superior option.

Rethink Your Existing Pricing

Many consumers view rogue apps as low-priced alternatives to black cars. Uber’s marketing team intelligently twisted the pricing models of two different markets by using taxi-style rates in the black car industry. The result? Existing black car consumers perceived the taxi-style distance/time rates as bargains, while existing taxi consumers perceived the rates as only a small premium to upgrade to a better alternative. In reality, Uber’s rates tend to be competitive or more expensive. For example, Perfect Limo Service’s all inclusive rate from my house to JFK Airport is $165; Uber’s rate is “$179-$238.” Although Uber’s rate seems like a bargain at only $3.90/mile (Uber’s rate/mile for the NYC region as of Sept. 2013), its calculation tells a different story.

However, I strongly oppose using price competition as a selling tool. It is the cause of many problems we face as operators. Many operators see no alternative, but Uber teaches us that, for certain consumers, price is not as important as convenience. It is far easier to use a rogue app than it is to calculate a rate and call multiple companies for price quotes—a convenience premium consumers are happily paying for. In the case of my house to JFK airport, that premium is 45 percent.

While corporations have become more savvy at negotiating low rates, individuals lack corporate buying power and are becoming lazier in their purchasing, a trend that will continue as the economy improves. With improved customer apps we can catch and exceed rogue apps’ convenience. In addition to mobile booking, new dispatching technology will allow us to compete with their ASAP response times. Combine these changes with our unique ability to provide future and affiliate booking, and you have a recipe for a lot of new revenue.

Uber also demonstrates that customers are not only willing to pay a premium for convenience, but for rapid service as well. It may be time to consider adding a surcharge for ASAPs, explaining to customers that the growing volume of ASAPs is driving up costs. Rather than increasing prices for everybody, the surcharge only increases rates when absolutely necessary.

The other option—completely changing your rates— is a huge hassle. You need to generate new rate tables (unless your reservation system can auto-calculate rates), create new rate policies and train employees to communicate the new rates. It may be easier to modify how you frame your rates. Go back to the rate I mentioned earlier, from my house to JFK airport. If I framed my price in Uber’s terms, it would look something like this: $7 (base charge) + $2.31/mile + surcharges + gratuity. Some companies may feel uncomfortable quoting prices this way. It seems shady—probably because it is.

The problem lies in what behavioral economists refer to as the “reference value.” Regardless of how the price is framed or if certain charges are left out, the first price that the consumer sees becomes the reference value. Repeated exposure to other rates can cause slight deviation in the reference value, but it has surprising staying power. The first price the consumer sees is the price the consumer will use to decide if a rate is high, low or neutral, regardless of whether the rates came from entirely different metrics (per mile vs. flat, for example).

Price can be the difference between huge profits and going out of business. Price changes need a detailed strategy for implementation and communication. Employees need to be trained to communicate prices and be prepared to field questions from consumers about the new rates and policies.

Technology: Join the Frontier 

Browsers and mobile devices have evolved to the point where they can run programs just as powerful and complex as computer programs. New web services that can be used to enhance your company are created all the time. Besides flight verification and tracking, mapping services can be used to ensure accurate addresses as well as search for points of interest. Affiliate networks, such as RateButler, have web services that can be integrated to provide more rapid access to affiliate rates. Finally, reservation systems can create tools that allow consumers to automatically integrate trips into their calendars and travel itineraries, keeping everything in one place. On the dispatching end, most GPS providers offer web services that fully integrate their data into reservations systems, allowing for self-monitoring trips. This data can also be used to ensure fast, accurate billing.

Countless tools are also available to track and improve marketing, which reservation systems can integrate. Social media tracking and web search tracking, such as Google Analytics, provide tools you can use to monitor marketing campaigns and identify how to better spend limited marketing dollars. Integrating these tools to track booking sources will allow accurate identification of which marketing channels are most effective.

It may also be time to update your reservations system— but keep in mind that switching reservation systems is expensive and time-consuming, and all too often that money and time are wasted when data is just copied from the old system to the new. A system change is an opportunity to clean out junk data and remove/merge duplicate items. Either you or your software provider needs to do this to ensure a smooth transition. To maintain service levels, you need to ensure that the software company properly trains you and your staff and provides easy access to customer support. If you use a third party answering service, you need to ensure they can access the new system and that they are properly trained on it as well.

By using social media, pricing and technology more effectively, and combining them with the advantages our industry already has over rogue apps, we can learn from their achievements and turn their strategies into our own successes.

Our diverse fleets allow us to provide more booking options than rogue apps. Uber has limited itself to handling only ASAPs. We have no such limitations and can harness affiliate networks to book transportation globally. Using a base of operations, we have ways to regularly check the quality of vehicles and chauffeurs, allowing us to deliver a higher quality product. The rogue app’s only true advantage is its technology, which is easily replicated.

There are already web services that do what rogue apps do. GPS data can be sourced from in-car units or smartphones, flight verification and tracking are already ubiquitous, and there are many quality mapping options. Browsers have evolved to be just as effective as installed systems, while internet speed and uptime are now at a high enough level to confidently run an entirely web-based system. Expect to see reservation systems that solve most or all of these problems debuting this fall.

Once the technology is in place, we can turn the rogue app business model against itself. We can provide more options and convenience, and we can be comfortable modifying our prices to profit from that added convenience. A kick in the butt from rogue apps may have been just what our industry needed. //LD

Contributed by Daniel Sutich

When: Monday, December 31, 2012 from 7 p.m. until midnight
Where: Discovery Green
1001 Avenidas de las Americas
Admission: FREE for all ages

What to Expect:

Ice Skating Rink – 11 a.m.

The Ice at Discovery Green, Houston’s largest open air skating rink, will be open at 11 a.m. Skate rental is $10 for all ages.

Food and Beverage
Stop by one of many food trucks located throughout the park featuring burgers, Asian foods, cupcakes, pizza and more. Adult beverages including beer, wine and champagne will be sold in the Budweiser Zone to customers 21 and over. No alcoholic beverages may be brought into the park.

Family Zone
Costume characters including Jack Scratch the Magician and Schave and Reilly will entertain the little ones. Be sure to let them board the Pets on Wheels ride featuring playful animal replicas that light up and sing holiday songs.

KC and the Sunshine Band in Concert
Stop by the Anheuser Busch stage for a live performance from the “king of disco groove”.

DJ Dueling
DJ Gonz and Elroy Boogie will battle it out from illuminated towers throughout the park.

Illuminated Parade – 8 p.m.
Even if you are familiar with Houston’s own Art Car Parade, you’ve certainly never seen it like this. Not only will trucks, buses, motorcycles and convertibles be decked out in their typical art car funkiness, they’ll also be illuminated with hundreds of bright, colorful lights as they stroll along Avenidas de las Americas. TransGates Limousine will also be exposing some of their limousine for the show, and for people who would like to take pictures in the limos.

Kids Soul Train and Disco Area

Stilt walkers, rock climbing, glowing bungee trampolines, and quad jumpers can all be found in this ’70’s themed kid zone. Be sure to let the little ones compete in the glowing hula-hoop contest and take a photo in the “Soul Train” line. Little tykes can start the countdown early at 9 p.m. with a confetti drop on the lawn of Discovery Green.

Fireworks – 11:59 p.m.
The spectacular evening will draw to an exhilirating close with a firewors display from atop the George R. Brown Convention Center.