Anybody . . .

that thinks that limos.com hasn't become the de facto NLA forum on the inernet hasn't looked at the Limo-Forum opening page. The NLA topics have had a total of 1761 posts while the next largest number is for General Limousine Industry topics (which should be immense) is 1410 . . . as of this date and time.

James H. Joseph
Pegasus Chauffeured Motor Cars
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
jhj@pegasus-pittsburgh.com

DE FACTO:

"being in effect, but not formally recognized"

or

"exercising power although not legally constituted"

I had to look it up to make sure I remembered correctly. http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

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yea I'm in a rotten mood like I told the guy in the complaint forum when he said he has a problem with Tiffany,tell people.
Michael you have done a nice job with the forum and L.C and I dont begrudge you anything and hope you make a bazzilion dollars BUT.
How did eveybody take there bills last month from L.Com? A little high maybe?
Well let but it this way and I know its been discussed before but there is now 14 companies listed in Tampa on L.Com after conferring with 8 of them and comparing a few things it was discovered that over 900 inquiries there was like 4 bookings! It seems to us and guys we talked to that L.Com has now become nothing but a yellow page book. I don't want to hear, well your not selling right thats bull and its not just price because we have played with that angle, they are not booking. So something else is wrong here and we will find it. Anybody else having this added increase of expense and booking less? Be truthful boys!!!
TT

we should start curtailing traffic instead of trying to increase it? I guess we should start repelling customers instead of trying to attract them?

Please, if you think your bill is too high, you are welcome to do something about it... log in to your account and turn it off. Change your territory. Change your vehicles. Change your service settings. Change your methods of responses.

What do I tell the guy in KC that booked 60 weddings already this year? Or the guy in Chicago who books more than $100,000 from us? People aren't booking?

Complaints about too much traffic? Not enough traffic? Either way, I can't win. I apologize our site receives nearly 10,000 users per day. Perhaps we should cut advertising. Perhaps we should start lowering our bids for limo words.

"Auto-select" is NOT the answer so please don't speculate about it; our average lead per user increased from 4.1 to 4.8 since using it.

I hate it when someone tries to compare us to the Yellow-Pages, yet doesn't want to hold themselves responsible for the same type of result-- If no one books with your company from your full-page yellow page after receiving 50 phone calls, would you blame the yellow pages for your poor result? Did they not deliver you the opportunity? "Hey Yellow-Pages, 50 people called us from our ad but we only booked 1 job" They'd laugh at you.

On a side note, 14 companies in Tampa? 2 years ago we had 9. I don't think adding 5 company's in 2 years was overkill; especially since 2 years ago we dealt with 500 users a day, not 10,000 which represents a 2000% increase. Tampa company's have not increased 2000%.

Your explanation is rather simple and somewhat logical: If our users double, so will your bill. Our traffic has increased and our conversions have increased. Its a combination of both.

Our service has been that way since 1997; its our burden to drive traffic. Again, if you don't agree, change your strategy; your method of response, your timing of response(s), your account settings; your account login exists for that reason.

In addition, Michele has a job for that reason as well....to HELP. Her telephone number is 480.592.0880.

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[This message was edited by Viperion Corporation / Limos.com on February 28, 2002 at 01:59 AM.]

No sooner than I finish posting the previous thread and I check my email and see from one of our company's in Seattle...

"I still believe STRONGLY that this service is the best business decision we ever made.. The per lead fee is so reasonable even if you only book one airporter a month out of limos.com you haven't lost any money! Thanks for the great service!"

Hmmm...

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your inquiry follow up programs. When we first started in the business we would convert about 10% of all inquiries into rides. Since we implemented a program to follow-up the inquiries we've brought the conversions up to about 60% or 70%.

Work together boys, that's what this forum is all about, right?

Matt Harrison
AAA Guaranteed On-Time Limouisne, Clinton NJ

of a company in Boston who called and said they only booked a few jobs and "how could they book more"?

Michele spent some time with them and told them to save their wedding inquiries and always follow up more than once. Not just weddings, but nights-out and aiport jobs as well. Always, SAVE and follow-up. This was about 8 months ago and we haven't heard anything from them until last month when they said they are now booking tons of jobs. Customer's tell them it was their cordial follow-ups and attention to detail which made them book.

Most company's will send a quick, disinterested response to an internet inquiry and toss it in the trash. Then they wonder why they don't book.

Selling is a process, not an event. - Especially on high price events; one email simply won't do the job.

Anyhow, speaking of mythodical follow-ups, Viperion Corp. is announcing a new service at the Limo-Show which will help companies in this capacity, and moreover, help them book more without spending so much time at the computer.

Stay tuned ... I should have some definitive dates in the next 7 working days.

Michael

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Were the follow ups phone calls or emails?

They didn't say .. just "follow-ups" -- I would think periodic emails up until the service date. Emails are non-intrusive. Phone calls are intrusive.

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Hey gang the first thing you guys need to realize is this Tampa area is very strange and might not be comparable to other area's. For example you mention timing, we use a land line (road runner) which stays on all day and somebody always hears that (You've got mail noise) so the response is quick. A few weeks ago during a follow up (thats right) I emailed the client if they made a decision about their request for some airport(wifes request) and dinner (husbands) inquiries and they said no (they each made a request which naturally we get charged twice)nothing Michael can do about that, I found this out after speaking to the wife later. I asked the wife how many people responded to her airport request she said 4 one of which was mine (the first she got) I asked her how many responded to her husbands dinner request she said 7 (1 was mine the 2nd one received). I asked her if she needed further assistance to help her make a choice and she said no they were not going with a Limo because they got totaly confused and scared with the pricing difference, $25.00 per hour. She did stay on long enough to share with me the companies and the rates and didn't care cause she wasn't using any of them, thanked me for my time and said by. Thats the only reason I remarked about the yellow pages ( I have very small ads). I know everyone of these companies including the one that quoted $50 per hour for the 10 pass super stretch and the other company beside myself that quoted $75.00 per hour.
Whats the moral of this story, you cant even give away cars here!! Ha ha
Remember we are the only state that can screw up a Presidential election.
See you guys later

What you see as a lost sale, I see as an amazing opportunity.
You had a woman on the phone who was "considering" a limo ride for her airport run, AND her husband wanted a night on the town.
They said it was too confusing and you stopped there.
My goodness-if someone said to me the choices of what Internet company to advertise with were too confusing and they decided not to advertise on the Internet, I wouldn't ask them how many companies they looked at and how much the prices were. I would tell her why she should advertise with us. Why she needs to.

This couple must have sat down individually and thought how nice it would be to rent a limo. The found limos.com- completed a search and reached out to limos
companies to help them decide.Help her decide.

Here is an example:
My friend asked me to baby-sit her kids the other night. She told me this story.
Her cousin's 16 year old wanted a limo ride to take him and his friends to a party. The called the limo company and with the Saturday night minimum of 6 hours, they couldn't afford it. The limo company could have hung up the phone and said-oh well, a wasted phone call.
INSTEAD the limo company saw OPPORTUNITY. The suggested that the kids parents invite some friends out to use the limo while the kids were at the party- (my friend was invited, that is why she needed me to baby-sit). The adults with the kids split the cost of the limo. EVERYONE had a great time. The limo company got three couples, and a bunch of kids in the car experiencing their quality service. The kids that went for the ride probably told their parents about it. My friend and her husband will use that company on their next special occasion. The other couple will too. The limo driver was great, the car was clean-soda was provided.

If that limo company did not SELL his service and find a way to make it work for that customer he would have missed out on all this future business. Leads are GOLD. Each person who is thinking about a limo drive wants to experience the wonderful times that they heard so much about. I could go on and on. My point is-maybe the timing of the call wasn't good-but the opportunity was there, and still is even today. Write that woman a letter so that she won't be confused. Explain to her why deciding to use a limo will be the best choice she can make.
Then provide the quality service that will sell her on future rides. That couple probably has friends-if the have a good time, they will use you again- and so will their friends.

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TT:
(they each made a request which naturally we get charged twice)nothing Michael can do about that, I found this out after speaking to the wife later. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Guy,

Oh no! There is something we can do about that; we can remove doubles which aren't detected by the computer if you let us know. You are NOT supposed to be charged for it.

When your new statement is online, if you notice undetected duplicates (husband/wife with different names/emails, son/mother for prom, etc.) and we can give credit. In addition, if you notice other leads which you feel are *invalid* are present, we can review those and extend credit depending on the situation.

Your credit card is not drafted for a few days AFTER you get the statement specifically for these purposes of reviewing statements for accuracy.

- M

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Michele believe me I gave you a very shortened version of a 25 minute phone call.
Michael I know you would give a credit anytime asked, but like I said, here was 2 different people in the same house getting quotes I wonder how many times this happens.
Believe me we stand on our head to sell and maybe you guys misunderstood what I meant about "like the yellow pages" more and more people are just shopping with very little intention of booking with anybody, problem here it costs us money. Like the story of that lady, only 4 companies responded to the airport request Julies, Addis,Embassy and us with rates from $40 to $50 (we were the $50).
I don't know but somethings not right