Cold Link Africa November/ December 2023 | Page 31

Running your cold chain business is hard . Growing it is harder . Finding time to work on the business ( strategy ) as well as do things in the business ( operations ) can be tricky when you only have so many hours in a day .
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
CONTRIBUTORS

5 ways to grow your HVAC & R business in the cold chain By Charles Freedman , CEO , ServCraft .

Running your cold chain business is hard . Growing it is harder . Finding time to work on the business ( strategy ) as well as do things in the business ( operations ) can be tricky when you only have so many hours in a day .

Charles Freedman is the CEO of ServCraft ( www . servcraft . co . za ), a South African designed and built job management software for HVAC installation and repairs and other field service businesses .

I

’ m privileged to speak to hundreds of HVAC & R installation businesses every month . When I ask them how they ’ re growing their business , many look at me blankly . Turns out that for lots of business owners in our industry , their approach to growth often involves staring helplessly at the phone and hoping it will ring .
In considering how you ’ re hoping to grow your business , it ’ s important to accept a simple truth – the time you spend on growing your business directly translates to how it grows .
If the story above sounds familiar , don ’ t
worry . Instead , let ’ s explore what you can do differently today that can help you grow your business tomorrow .
1 . ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS
When thinking about growth , it ’ s new customers that spring to mind . But did you know it can cost up to five times more to acquire a new customer vs retaining an existing one ? An average ServCraft installer has 700 customers on their database . Do you know how many are on yours ? Imagine you could find out if there ’ s something you could do for them ? You can – just ask !
A WhatsApp broadcast list holds 256 people . A group holds 512 . It takes less than 30 minutes to get your customers into multiple lists and then you can easily talk to them . Marketing automation companies like mailchimp . com ( US ) or everlytic . com ( South Africa ) allow you to send personalised emails and texts to your customers and offer cheap or free versions to get you started .
Whether you ’ re checking in , asking for referrals , sharing a promotion or offering a new product or service , asking your existing customers is the quickest and cheapest way to find new business . Do it now !
When thinking about growth , it ’ s new customers that spring to mind . But did you know it can cost up to five times more to acquire a new customer vs retaining an existing one ?

COLD LINK AFRICA • November 2023 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za 31