Wonder if anyone else has run across this. I just got a call this evening about 9:15 from a guy where I left one of my door hangers on his door handle. He said “your stupid door hanger ruined my door.” I asked what he was talking about and he explained that from the rain the paint (ink) on the door hanger must have leached onto his beautiful door. It is a nice wooden door in an upscale neighborhood. I said I would stop by first thing in the morning to take a look at it, Hopefully I can clean it maybe with Murphy s Wood Soap or something. Anyway, brand new door hangers I just got yesterday from the printer. I’m also doing an experiment. I soaked one in water and stuck it wet to my bathroom door to see what it does. I’m thinking maybe it got wet, stuck to the wood, then the sun dried it to the door and he tried to peel it off and, well you know paper. We’ll see tomorrow.
many times, just a little time after you clean it up and its gone. May even be gone by the time you get there tomorrow. esp if new glossy laquer finish, I would imagine.
I had that problem with a few on mailboxes when we first started…switched to high gloss coating and they’re basically waterproof now, so no more worries. Just take care of that guy and go with a good UV coating next time.
Haven’t heard of this before. But I think your doing the right thing.
Go out promptly, check it, and if it was your flier that did it then make it right, even if that means paying to have the door repainted.
Make this guy happy because you don’t want him telling all the neighbors about you ruining his door. Turn this into a positive. Fix his door and maybe offer him a free exterior cleaning. This way you make him happy and repay him for the inconvenience. He may see that your a stand-up guy and recommend you to his neighbors or family. He may even pay you to do the rest of his house.
This is the kind of thing that separates shoddy companies from professional companies and how reputations are made.
This is actually an excellent opportunity for you-- sieze it!
Amen, turn it into positive.
Dale
Well, the guy wasn’t there so I cleaned his door up good and got all traces of my door hanger off. Still not sure how this happened other than the afternoon sun hits square on his doorway. Anyway, left him a note saying I apologize for the inconvenience and offered to clean his outside windows no charge. Who knows if I’ll ever hear from him again. Kind of a tough sell neighborhood. While I was continuing to drop off door hangers as I walked up to one house the homeowner opened the door as I made it to the step, I said good morning as I handed him my flier and was about to explain briefly what I do when he crumpled the door hanger in his hand and shut the door in my face. That’s fine, this is the type of people when I love karma. Another HO on Saturday met me in the driveway stating how much he hated fliers on his door because of an invite to criminals that no one is home, etc. Inside of 3 minutes he accepted my flier and business card and admitted that occasionally he does need his windows cleaned and would let me know. I’ll accept that. May is slow here, but I’m staying positive as I just picked up a monthly store front in an area I have been trying to land a string of them, so we’ll see.
G
Nice job Gary. Remember this though, if the neighborhood is a hard nut to crack for you-- it is for everyone else as well. Others may have just given up and went looking for an easier place to flier. This could be an untouched market.
You just need to get your foot in the door and let word of mouth help you along. Hopefully that guy takes you up on the offer and tells some neighbors about how you fixed that problem quickly and then did an awesome job on the windows.
At the very least- nobody will be talking smack about you or your company.
Keep us informed on how it all plays out.
That’s my hope. Word of mouth can make or break a business. Valpak Blue Envelope delivers in there next month so if they look at any of those my logo gets reinforced. I haven’t had any hits from the first Valpak mailing in another area this month at all. Seems door hangers always worked better, but I have a few nice neighborhoods where no door to doors are allowed.
I’ve never used the Val-Pack stuff before. Probably because when I get that kind of thing in the mail I toss it before I even give a second glance. However, when I get a nice glossy postcard, I allways look at it just to see who it is. Nice door hangers are the same way. If they are nice ones, I look them over. If they are just floppy paper then I know it’s just a pizza ad or something and they get crumpled up as I take it off the handle.
I’ve been using card stock from the printer, but they had a special of 5000 for $199 on 100# stock (like magazine cover) but they just are too flimsy if there is any breeze. Live and learn. I’ll go back to the card stock when these are done.
Thanks for posting this Garry… I never thought of that happening before… You did the right thing and hopefully some work will come of it. Maybe try some postal mailings into that area…
Thanks Chris. Yeah, I don’t think I will do Valpak again. It’s cost me $600 so far and nothing in return. With door hangers I usually get responses between 2 days and 2 weeks. I have a professional looking door hanger that I designed - I believe it is posted up in the share area - and I have a post card design I am tweaking and will use for areas I’m not allowed to canvas on foot. I know there are people out there who just don’t care for door hangers on their property and something like this just ****es them off more, and it is risky for those doors that have a little “NO SOLICITING” sign that you don’t see until you are just about to place it (I sometimes place anyway unless told not to). The one guy who met me in his driveway did bring up a good point - door hangers and unsubscribed papers and such left when the home owner is out of town just signals an empty house to crooks. In hindsight afterwards I thought about offering to clear that out when I’m doing my rounds in the neighborhood. I may just offer that up next time it comes up as it wouldn’t be often and only takes a few minutes. If he turns out to be a customer there would be dialogue about that and just might help ensure a quarterly clean.
I happen to look at those Val-Packs everytime I get one thank you very much! lol
Why? For advertising research? To purchase a product or service? Because you use it to advertise as part of your marketing strategy?
i agree completely. i toss that crap all the time. as far as i’m concerned, it has your company name on it, go all out. you dont want your name on a piece of paper, you want it on a piece of gold. spend the money for a nice glossy ad
Isn’t that what the sign is telling you?
+100
I’ve been holding myself back from saying the same thing!
Yes and no. I’m not soliciting as in ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door to disturb the resident with a sales pitch of a hard sale. I’m leaving my advertisment for services and very rarely (twice in 2 years) have I encountered a negative reaction. In fact even picked up a few who had those small signs posted. Most times I will skip by them, but occasionally if the windows look like they can use my service and the property looks like it can afford it I do it. Usually go with gut feeling on whether to or not.
I call bull****!
Val Pak vs Chris’ 8x11 saturation:
val pak has a curiosity element, but it
has to be opened
has to be thumbed thru - usually it is very hastily done
there has to be a pause and interest to stop at your ad while in the momentum off tossing ea one into trash
i see 3 levels of compounding difficulty (probably exponential, if tested) to reach the desired exposure (thus the lower cost of val pak I’m sure vs dmail)
vs 8x11
Chris had that video where he showed how the mailperson will usually use the postcard to cradle the rest of the mail in it
plus the large impactuful size
plus the easy to read font size without readers for those over 40-50yrs
thick 14pt vs flimsy pizza ad paper
it’s just so dominating, EACH one WILL get at least some attention of some sort
I’ll take that over a val pak anyday IMHO
