A few years back, Jeff Toister, owner of Toister Performance Solutions, decided to put a different spin on things for Customer Service Week. Toister, a nationally acclaimed consultant, speaker and author on customer service issues, decided to focus on a seminar that would enable attendees who already appreciated the value of good customer service to take it to the next level. In order to generate interest in the offer, Toister decided to forego the traditional printed invitation to the event by mailing out flying discs to a select group of clients and prospects. With an average response rate of 1 - 2% on most direct mail campaigns, Toister was thrilled to report a 14.7% closure rate for RSVP's to the seminar - that fulfilled his attendance goal at the workshop by 100%. An additional 9.8% of recipients were interested, but had a scheduling conflict that day. And these figures don't take into account the number of people who commented to him about the unusual invitation months later - proving that he was staying top-of-mind with those customers/prospects. All-in-all, he had a response rate of 89% within one week of the flying discs being mailed out with some people calling just to say they really liked the invitation.
Toister credits the concept of his unusual invitation to Rama Beerfas, Chief Solutions Specialist at Lev Promotions. Beerfas created a mailing piece that was fun, informational and unforgettable. The imprint on the disc itself got people's attention ("Is customer service a term you just throw around?"); while the printed, die-cut insert in the reverse side gave recipients all the information they needed to sign up for the introductory seminar. The disc was mailed out without any additional packaging with an address label and postage right on the die-cut insert.
The added bang for the buck came with the fact that, six weeks after the original mailing, Toister reported, "I ran into yet another person at an event last night who said, 'Oh, I really liked the Frisbee. It was sooooo cool.'"
When asked if results like this were typical, Beerfas replied, "Given an accurate focus on the target market, an item that is geared to attract their attention, and good presentation through delivery, messaging and packaging, results like this are absolutely achievable."
