Any business that is relying so heavily on referrals is either very well established and can afford slow growth or -- more likely -- is growing slower than desirable.

Not to say that referrals don't work. Obviously they do. However, waiting for your customers to make a referral can be a slow process over which you have little control.

The survey results also indicate a general dissatisfaction with the results seen from advertising and promotional efforts, reporting that 13.9 percent of new customers come from advertising and promotions and 8.5 percent from yellow pages.

In other words, if advertising and promotions were working better, a higher percentage of new customers would be coming from those sources.

Well, there is a promotional advertising medium that does work -- coupon advertising. It's the number-one way to attract new customers in America, and it's effective for the retail automotive detailing business.

Donnelley Marketing's Annual Survey of Promotional Practices, which surveys manufacturers, retailers and consumers about the success and usage of promotional practices, states that 88 percent of all households have used coupons within the last six months.

Couponing recently marked its 100th birthday as an advertising vehicle and retains its position as the number-one consumer promotion vehicle and the best way to get customers to try a new product or service.

Your detail shop can use this powerful advertising medium to increase retail business just as Dave Brooke, owner of Every Last Detail in Seattle, WA, has.

A Slow Start

Brooke's free-standing, independent shop is in a high visibility automotive services mini-mall on a major highway in North Seattle. He opened the shop in the fall of 1994 after a long career with Nordstrom, the clothing retailer famous for their customer service.

The location was selected primarily with the retail customer in mind and is outfitted with a comfortable waiting room, television, restroom and espresso stand outside.

After Brooke opened the shop, he made personal sales calls to the local used car lots to drum up business. The efforts paid off with increasing sales, but his frustrations with wholesale work also grew.

He found that the prices he could charge for wholesale work were preset by his already-established competitors. However, his fixed costs were much higher than his competitors because of his high-rent location.

Brooke's retail business was growing slowly. New customers came primarily from drive-by traffic and walk-ins who had their cars in other shops in the mall.

Brooke realized he needed to increase his retail sales, which motivated him to research several advertising methods.

"I wanted more retail work," he says. "Not only could we charge more for retail work, but it's cash business. We don't have to wait 30 to 60 days to get paid like we do with the wholesale work."

The Solution

Brooke selected a cooperative direct mail company to help him design and mail 10,000 coupons to the homes surrounding his business.

Cooperative direct mail is an advertising medium where several local businesses put individual coupon advertisements into the same envelope and share the cost of production and postage. These mailings are then sent to every address within a certain geographic zone.

Several companies -- including Val-Pak, Money Mailer and Super Coups -- provide the coordination, design, printing and mailing of cooperative direct mail packages through sales offices around the U.S. and Canada.

Cooperative direct mail averages 4.5 cents per address, including all design, printing and postage. This is very inexpensive when compared to the cost of producing and mailing an individual direct mail piece at a minimum of 50 cents per address, including design, printing, mailing labels and postage.

Every Last Detail's first advertisement was a four-color glossy insert that included two coupon offers: "Wash & Wax Mini Detail $49" and "Complete Auto Detailing $129."

Brooke was initially skeptical about the Mini Detail offer.

"I didn't want to sell at that low a price, and the wash and wax wasn't a package that we offered," he says.

The coupon company representative convinced him that a lower price point would attract a larger number of people, which would build his customer base and allow the possibility of upselling some customers to a full detail.

Another key factor to his success was Brooke's understanding that repetition in advertising is important. He committed in advance to four consecutive mailings to the same group of addresses.

"It's human nature to procrastinate," Brooke says. "Every time someone sees our ad with a good offer, it reminds them to take action -- to pick up the phone and call."

The Results

Brooke was pleased and surprised by the response.

"We saw immediate results from the first mailing, and it just got better with each consecutive mailing," he says. "It turned out that the Mini Detail is our best offer. It pulls the best response, and it generates more revenue per labor hour than our full detail."

Every Last Detail's commitment to couponing has grown since its four-mailing test. Brooke has increased his coupon pricing on his Mini Detail to $59 and Complete Detail to $159, as well as added a third coupon with which he rotates offers such as Winter Interior Detail and Window Tinting.

He has decreased the size of his yellow pages advertising and increased his budget for couponing. This year he will mail 75,000 coupons per month to the North Seattle market.

In addition, Brooke has saved every retail customers' name and address since he opened. Last year he started a postcard direct mail program to his existing customer base. Every three months he sends postcards with a "$10 Off Any Detail Service" coupon on it.

"Our postcards generate more sales per dollar spent than our regular coupons," Brooke says. "But that's to be expected. It's always more expensive to attract new customers than it is to get repeat business from past customers."

Brooke has achieved his goal of building Every Last Detail into a business with a strong and growing retail customer base and become less dependent on wholesale work.

"Our business has changed," he says. "Wholesale has stayed at about the same level, but our retail business has increased over 400 percent in less than two years."

Brooke says he can now be more selective about the wholesale work he takes on.

"If I've had problems with a car lot in the past, I don't take their cars anymore," he says. "Coupons have made the difference. They've delivered retail customers."

Mark Powell is a marketing consultant for Val-Pak Coupons in Seattle, WA, and is the author of The Complete Car Buyer's Handbook.