By Christian Riddell
Motorcoach Marketing Council

Last month we talked about the opportunities that exist outside of our current customer bases. We touched on the fact that even though we will move more than 20 million people this year, only a small percentage of those people are actually responsible for booking the coach.

This month we would be remiss if we did not discuss the opportunity those non-bookers represent to the future of this industry.

In marketing, there are three categories of customers worth addressing in your efforts to fill up those pesky dispatch holes. The first -- and the lowest-hanging fruit -- is past customers. These are people who know about your product, know what you offer, and who have, in the past, actually paid you for your services.

Keeping these customers happy and rebooking them is good, but it is better to expose them to what is possible. If you have a wedding planner who books with you, he or she may not know you also do local sightseeing trips. Your corporate transportation coordinator may not know you also do wine trips or you could handle the companys upcoming team-building events.

It is also important to consider that one of the fastest ways to get new business is to have your sales team follow up with happy customers and ask for referrals. These warm handoffs can go a long way in helping you land new customers.

The second group includes the more than 500 million people in North America who will not set foot on a motorcoach this year but who will almost all do something a coach would make better.

Although this represents a massive opportunity to grow, we understand they also represent the most challenging sector to market to because they simply don't know what we have to offer.

Blue Juice and Mentholatum

Many have misconceptions about modern motorcoach travel. They picture in their heads old, tired coaches that smell of Blue Juice and Mentholatum and are filled with octogenarians. Few understand the modern luxuries and amenities that make what we offer so much better than any other form of group transportation.

The opportunities here are as big as the market and as diverse as the populations we serve. However, it will take work to show people who we are and what we have to offer. The tools created by the Motorcoach Marketing Council will help open these doors and show more and more people just how great we are.

The other demographic that we, as an industry, need to realize as an untapped market includes people who ride in our coaches but who are not responsible for the booking. I am constantly surprised by the lack of enthusiasm many charter operators show for this avenue of marketing.

These are people who have been on a coach; they have seen the amenities and they understand how efficient and effective we are at group transportation. In most cases, they will arrive comfortably and safely at their destination, they will be happy with the service and they will leave feeling like they had a good experience.

As charter companies, we work hard to ensure this is the case. We invest in driver training and equipment we can be proud of. We work hard to ensure our maintenance program keeps our coaches on the road safely. We pay our wash crews to keep the coaches looking (and smelling) good.

Then we load 50 passengers onboard and work to get them from point A to point B safely and comfortably. Yet in most cases, only one out of those 50 charter passengers is actually our "customer."

Busload of customers

That means that the other 49 are potential customers who have already been exposed to our company, our equipment and our level of service. These are people who may have never been on a coach before, or perhaps they use coaches regularly but have never thought to book one.

They could be business passengers whose company uses coaches but who have never thought to look into chartering a coach for their son's sports teams. They could be people attending a wedding who never thought this could be the perfect solution for their growing churchs transportation needs.

We, as an industry, know if you have a group that needs to go from point A to point B, there is no better way than on a motorcoach. We know we are the greenest, most efficient and most comfortable, convenient and cost-effective way to move groups.

We cannot, however, assume that just because someone attending their cousin's bat mitzvah rode a coach from their hotel to the venue, they also will know about the benefits of motorcoach travel. Yet, this is a very real opportunity for us to plant those seeds in that persons mind.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking. People paid to charter the coach. We can't be selling to their guests. Well, you are partially right and completely wrong.

Yes, someone chartered your coach and you shouldn't send a salesperson onboard to make sure every one of those passengers ends up on your email list. But that is not the kind of selling you should be doing anyway.

Planting seeds

You are already selling your service by the very nature of how you do business. How your drivers dress, how the passengers are treated and how your coach looks and smells already are selling what you do. The next step is simply to plant some seeds about what else motorcoaches are great at doing.

This can be done in unobtrusive, non-threatening ways that will deliver the message and won't cross the line with your paying customers. There are lots of ways to do this. Some are easy and fast, some are more difficult, but all will deliver real results.

One of the simplest ways to accomplish this is to implement a "campaign of the month" that includes distributing materials on your coaches focusing on the services you offer and the advantages of coach travel. Materials for more than 20 such campaigns are available through the GoMotorcoach program.

This can be as simple as attaching a card rack and brochure holder to one of the front rows of the coach. Some operators have incorporated these messages into their safety briefing videos. These short commercial messages simply talk about all the things a coach can do, with no hard selling needed.

Other operators have their drivers hand out the GoMotorcoach pass-along cards that highlight a specific service or attribute, while still others have built custom pieces that include safety messages on one side and marketing messages on the other. These are handed out to everyone boarding the bus.

Marketing to these passengers does not have to be expensive or intrusive, nor does it require a sales pitch. It simply requires an effort to get them to think, for just a moment, about all of the other places in their life where a motorcoach might fit and to deliver a quick explanation about how to book with you.

This is an opportunity to show them how affordable we are. Break down the cost of your minimum into a per-seat cost, and say things like "Prices starting at $8 per person" to get people thinking about all the ways they could use your coach.

No matter where you live or market, if you sell charters, far more people get on your coaches every day than those who have booked with you. This is an opportunity to engage with and recruit new customers from a group that has already seen exactly what you have to offer.

As you prepare to grow your business and to launch your marketing campaigns targeting those hundreds of millions of people who need what you have to offer, don't forget about those that are already well within your reach -- your current passengers.

For more information about the Motorcoach Marketing Council and its programs, go to www.motorcoachmarketing.org.