Availability
Availability is another aspect of timing for offers of products services or causes. For services, availability is closely related to capacity. The issue is not the best time to launch or promote an offer. It is periods when we can’t take on more clients (and so disappoint them) or have too few.
Work may be seasonal. A coaching service may find work slackens off at Christmas and during the summer holidays. A hairdresser on the other hand may find these are periods when there is more work.
Whilst you can anticipate times of year when work increases or decreases, be prepared to be surprised! Is a sudden fall in sales seasonal or an issue such as adverse publicity?
How to Respond to Times When Work is Scarce or Plentiful
A fall in sales may be an opportunity to make a special offer. If you have spare capacity, it may be better to sell it at a reduced price than to do nothing. If the spare capacity includes paid staff, this will be more important.
Address oversubscribed services with increased capacity. Self-employed people offering specialist services may need to find some way to spread customers over the year. However, if too much work is a serious issue then maybe the shape of the business needs attention. Increasing staff is only one option. Sometimes you can change the way you deliver a service to cut time commitment. For example a one-to-one service might be delivered to groups.
There is one remedy many businesses overlook when tackling over-subscriptions. That is increasing prices. Higher prices will result in fewer customers (keep increasing them until the numbers drop to something you can manage) and possibly more income. With fewer customers, you may be able to increase the time available for each customer and so the value of your offer will increase.
Whilst these may not be pressing issues for you, it is worth having a few ideas in advance to carry out should need arise.
This is part of a post sequence about the circuit questionnaire’s second element, products services and causes.