How do you spread the word about your fish and chip shop to get more customers through the door? William Rowe from W.J. Rowe Fish & Chips in Stevenage has tried a variety of ways to build on his trade: ‘I’ve put adverts for fish and chip shop in gyms, on the radio and I’ve done two local papers for 10 years. I wanted to try something new so I’ve just ordered an advert to go on a local bus.’
The local bus will drive around Stevenage for a year and whilst it doesn’t drive pass the shop, it does go into areas where William’s shop may not be as popular. In fact, it has already worked and the word is starting to get out: ‘A dozen customers have already come in and mentioned they did so because of the ad’ William said.
Knowing what adverts have worked can sometimes be hard to quantify: you may get more customers through the door, but which adverts did they see? William also has devised unique ways of finding out: ‘I purposely make obvious spelling mistakes which provoke a reaction and then you find the customers will mention it when they’re in the shop. Not only do you then know that they have seen the advert but it creates banter and that builds the customer interaction.
‘I’ve always found that doing adverts is really worthwhile: I did stop placing any about two years ago as they are expensive and my trade stopped increasing. I find that rather than doing special offers, adverts that offer information work really well: where the product is from; the quality of the oil; if we’ve won any awards; fat content; there’s so many things that we’ve focused on and the customers really respond to it.’
So if you happen to see an advert to W.J. Rowe Fish & Chips with an obvious spelling mistake, you now know why!