When is a REFUND appropriate

REFUNDS

The question of a REFUND was recently brought up

One of the reasons SignForce will only start production after payment (either a 70% deposit or full payment depending on the value of the job) is because people change their minds.

There are the rare times when SignForce is unable to fulfill the mandate of the client, in which case a refund is fair and necessary. This has happened less than five times in 25 years, so extremely rare.

There are however also times when SignForce is asked to make a refund after we have invested time and material into the job, and / or the job is completed or specific materials have been ordered and cut at the time of the requested refund. This is not to say there is anything pointedly WRONG with the sign or signs, just that a refund has been requested.

In the event there is a problem with a sign, it is SignForce’s policy to make good, and only if making good is not possible will any refund be considered.

When a client asks for a refund SignForce will first determine what, if any refund is appropriate, based on client expectations, quality of the sign or how far in the production process the sign is, how much work was involved in getting the sign to the current state – there is often a LOT of work that has to go into getting a sign produced, sometimes even when the client has provided professionally designed artwork, as not all professionally designed artwork is signage ready. Depending on the circumstances, should a refund be appropriate, said refund will only be to the value of any excess funds that are left after covering the cost of any specifically cut materials and labour.

One of the reasons SignForce will only start production AFTER a deposit has been received is because the signage SignForce make is CUSTOM made, so material cut for a client is extremely unlikely – read that as one in a trillion – to be usable for anyone else. The same applies to artwork that is client specific. As such, artwork and production can only begin once there is certainty that the job is going ahead and will be paid (as in the deposit has been received).

At SignForce we have a reputation that has been built over more than a quarter of a century, and we would be insane to throw that away in order to do a client in. That said, if you search hard enough you are sure to find people we have peeved off over the last 25 years.

If you are in the market for signage, SignForce is available to assist.

Contact SignForce now on info@signforce.co.za or call +27 (0)11 440 7525 or WhatsApp + 27 (0)82 558 6413

Find out more about SignForce at http://www.signforce.co.za

How can one measure the SUCCESS of your sign or signs?

How can one measure the SUCCESS of your sign or signs?

One of the greatest challenges of any marketing is to ensure that your COST is lower than your RETURN.

In the late 1985 Roger Sinclair published the book titled MAKE THE OTHER HALF WORK TOO. The main point he made was that about 50% of all ad spend (at that time) was wasted. He emphasized that it was exceptionally difficult to measure the return on a business’s advertising spend, mostly because of the marketing equivalent of trawl fishing with long nets. While the net MAY get you a decent haul of the fish you are looking for, the nets are notorious (and should be banned) because of the number of other species they unintentionally catch and kill.

In the modern world marketing (here we are referring to online marketing) is far easier to measure. This is partly because the business can track their spend on clicks or calls, but even more so because the largest player, #Google, has extremely powerful and in depth tracking tools that can almost pinpoint your return if used correctly.

Online is somewhat different to signage, in large part because signage is very much ‘old school’ and requires substantial investment that is not always clear or easy to measure.

In order to measure the ‘success’ of one’s sign or signs one needs to first have a clear ideas of what their sign or signs NEED to ACHIEVE in order to be successful. This can range from ‘feet through the door’ to ‘improved turnover’ or ‘better brand recognition’ – with the latter once again being extremely difficult to measure.

There was a case where SignForce and our client – STAX stores – could measure the success of one specific sign.

STAX were relocating one store. The thing is the new store was still being built and the existing store was no longer profitable, so the decision was made to close the loss making store and re-open when the new store was built in approximately 18 months.

In order to implement this strategy STAX ran a special store clearance sale. Part of the advertising spend was to do a low cost refurbishing of the existing external sore signage as it was very tired. In fact one sign was so tired that one letter was broken and birds had made a nest in the letter.

The sign was restored and reinstalled and the special ran. And ran, and ran. It ran for so long that the new store was ready to open before the old store closed.

One of the largest contributing factors was that the refurbished signage looked new and fresh. When one analyzed the difference it was evident that the old sign gave the impression that the store has closed and or moved as the signs were broken and in disrepair. The fresh refurbished sign let possible patrons know the store was open for business, and they came and kept coming into the store.

Not all signage will necessarily achieve one’s intended objective, especially when the desired outcome is either unknown or if know is not shared at the design stage.

When you are looking for signs that will help you achieve your desired outcome contact SignForce. Our years of experience in marketing and signage help make your signs stand out and work as intended.

Contact SignForce now on info@signforce.co.za or call +27 (0)11 440 7525 or WhatsApp +27 (0)82 558 6413

Find out more about SignForce at http://www.signforce.co.za