Tag: liqueurs

Platinum Personal Trade Account – a new way to enjoy our liqueurs

Get discounted liqueurs by setting up a Trade account.

As a result of our Online Survey, which is still running, many customers asked if there was a special discount structure available for larger liqueur orders.

In response, I have now created a new Platinum Personal Trade Account. To access the amazing discounts on your liqueurs, all you need to do is prepay for £500 worth of liqueurs and then order them up, as you need them. Each order must be for at least 12 x 50cl bottles or equivalent.

In addition to fantastic discounts on all your orders, you will also receive with each order, free of charge:

  • Baby Nutty Fruit Liqueur Cake with each order – these were very popular when I first started offering them 2 years ago and we have now placed another large order for Christmas sales – you get yours FREE – this is worth £6.50 per order.
  • Miniature Display Pack  – one of these comes with each order too, containing a miniature of The Original Lakeland Liqueur, Lord Nelson’s Spiced Rum Liqueur and Hebridean Whisky Liqueur. Ideal either as a wee gift for someone or as a treat for you. FREE with each order – worth £12.
  • FREE Delivery on all orders as standard

Also:

  • Special offers on our new brands and malt whiskies – from time to time, I have access to specialist whiskies that are not generally available in shops. As a Platinum Personal Trade Account holder, you will receive special notification of new stock becoming available and be the first to have the opportunity of buying these rare, collectible and very drinkable whiskies.

In return, instead of your £500 earning 0.5% in a bank account, you will earn up to 32 % discount on the Mail Order List Price of all our products. Fantastic!

All you need to do to set up an amount is to send us either a £500 deposit cheque, or pay by debit card – this means we can pass all the Trade discount on to you rather than pay a percentage the credit card companies.

Once your account is up and running, you can order what you wish with a minimum order of 12 x 50cl bottles. You will receive your order on the day you wish it to arrive. By post or email, a Statement your account showing what you have bought and how much is left in your Account.

I have a limited number of these Platinum Personal Trade Accounts available to get one now and save up to 32% on all your liqueur and whisky orders. Once you have sent in your payment, I will send you your Platinum Personal Trade Account price list and order form – then you can get going with your first order.

Here are some of our brands, the List Price and the Platinum Personal Trade Accounts prices you pay:

Description of brand                              List           Platinum          Discount            % Discount

The Original Lakeland Liqueur 50cl   £25               £17                        £8                        32%

Hebridean Whisky Liqueur 50cl         £25               £17                        £8                        32%

Nelson’s Spiced Rum Liqueur 50cl     £25               £17                        £8                        32%

Iron Duke Brandy Liqueur 50cl           £29               £20                        £9                        31%

Shakespeare’s Whisky Liqueur 50cl    £29               £20                        £9                        31%

 

New Christmas Offers about to be launched…

Making this Christmas an easier time for you and your friends – special offers coming soon.

Hello again and the Christmas Season is almost upon us. Perish the thought.

Well, to make it all a bit less of a hassle and more of a breeze for our customers, I am offering some delicious Nutty Baby Liqueur Fruit cakes with all orders of at least 4 x 50cl bottles of our liqueurs. I had some made up a year or so ago and am being asked for them all the time, so I have decided to include the free of charge with the orders running up to Christmas.

To make life even easier, I have included all our multi-buy options too so that you can get a great deal on the liqueurs and also get the free cakes….and another free gift when you order before 20th November 2011.

With luck, we will not have another horrendous snowfall like last December when all the roads here were impassible for a few days at the beginning of the month. Even the pallet freight companies wouldn’t send out their trucks as they would just get stuck and then hit by cars and other lorries sliding all over the roads.

So, to avoid disappointment, order early! Now that sounds like a catchphrase indeed.

Here’s to 6 weeks of Christmas shopping – I used to dread all that kind of thing, but now with Christmas Shows all over the place and Internet shopping, it has all become a bit easier if you’re organised in enough time.

All the best-Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

What to do when your printer gets too expensive to run?

New printer, higher costs and what to do about it.

Hello again,

Well the title of this Blog represents a bit of a dilemma. After years of ultra low cost printing, guess what? Yes, we printed everything, all the time. Now, with costs escalating out of sight with a new printer, we are going paperless at last.

When I worked in the computer business the paperless office was all the rage. I was selling these systems, but neither me nor my customers really believed a word of it. Well, some of them have managed it – scanning everything etc eventually. For a small business like  mine, there is a temptation to print off lots of correspondence and orders and clip the work card to it for our ever expanding files.

Then, at a stroke, it’s all over – now only the bare essentials are being printed and those are just for our customers so we don’t keep anything, apart from paper that comes in.

Having a shock to the system is almost as good as having a real ‘fire at the office’ situation where you have to decide what to keep doing and what to dump, imagining that you have to start from scratch.

Very satisfying too.

In fact as part of the ‘print nothing’ plan, ever more unnecessary steps have been removed and everything speeds up a bit – makes for a more interesting office too as more time to think of new products and ways to move the business forward rather than being weighed down by paperwork. Try it sometime-print nothing!

Postscript – now after several months, I have tracked down a compatible cartridge supplier who sells what I want for 25% of the original manufacturer – hope they work. In addition, now scanning lots more and just sending an attachment to customers and suppliers. All this means that our operation is much slicker and lower cost. Just the ticket.

Have a great week – this Blog is a bit late as our systems were down during an upgrade to our broadband last Friday.

All the best, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

Finding ways to reward existing customers

New Platinum Personal Tarde Account – get up to 32% discount on liqueur orders.

Hello there again,

This month I have been inspired by a book on different business strategies that I bought a while ago and came across while deciding which items to throw away. After reading one or two chapters, it occurred to me that what I needed from now on, was a list of strategies to reward my existing customers that I could work on and implement right now. The objective is for me to increase the number of ways to reward my existing customers and to increase the number of times they order from me.

I have now spent a week or so developing our new Platinum Personal Trade Account. With the offer on this new Account, my best customers will be able to get up to 32% off all their liqueur purchases and get some free goodies into the bargain each time they call off an order. The deal is that the customer sets up a Trade Account with us and pays into the Account so that there is always a positive balance. They can then place orders for at least 12 x 50cl bottles at a time.

Once they have applied for an Account, the full Personal Trade Account price list and order form is sent to them – currently the offer is only being made available to those who have signed up for our e-mail Newsletter. To do so, just go to our main liqueur site and click on the ‘Become a Friend of Hebridean Liqueurs’ box on the bottom left hand side of the Home page.

I have a several more promotional ideas coming up for our customers and it will be interesting to see which ones produce the best results. Keep checking this Blog to keep up to date with our offers.

Have a good weekend – all the best. Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

New brand coming soon

New gin to be launched in time for Christmas.

Hello again,

I have been working on a new brand for about 2 years now – not a liqueur this time but a Dry London Gin. Well, what’s so special about that you may ask?

Well, in my research, I have discovered that although there are lots of fancy new gins out there, they are either made with weird tasting botanicals  – the cool name for flavours – or you are meant to drink them in an unusual way. It turns out that the vast majority of gin drinkers like a straight G and T, so I have focused on having a gin that is just that – straight gin, with no messing about.

To make it a bit different though I have designed a gin at a strength of 50% ABV – Alcohol By Volume. Most gins are 37.5% ABV. So mine is a stronger, so you get a real G and T.

I have also chosen a really fantastic looking bottle too and the idea is that not only will it be a great gin to buy for yourself but also, due to the eye-catching packaging, will make a lovely gift too.

I am planning to have the brand out in time for Christmas so keep an eye on our website to see how you can place an order.

I will write another blog once the first batch is produced and will see about getting a copy of the label inserted into the article.

Have a great weekend – wild again here so off to the hills.

Kind regards, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

Rally postscript – rain, mud and soaked customers

Selkirk Rally a washout but a success despite this.

Well, it was a great plan until the weather altered just a bit. Saturday turned out to have Sunday’s weather so Sunday was wet, blast of sun then wet again, all day.

What this meant was that large numbers of car owners did not turn up – why put your lovely polished car into a quagmire? I wouldn’t, so I was amazed that any turned up at all. Despite the consequent drop in attendee numbers and the terrible weather, I still did okay after all. I didn’t really have much of an opportunity to do any Risk Reversal work but did focus on the two key aspects of our liqueurs.

The first point was that all my liqueurs are freshly made. What this means is that it is similar to when you bake a cake-the fresher it is, the nicer the taste. So it is with liqueurs. Other liqueurs are fine, but it is sometimes hard to work out how old they are when you buy them. To get the best tastes, the newer the liqueur the better.

The second point was that all the ingredients that I use are as pure as I can get. This is particularly important with the water that goes into each brand – only soft water is used, so that there is no mineral taste that you sometimes get in hard water areas of the UK. Soft water is available where I make the liqueurs, as rain does not flow through limestone rock, but over granite, so does not pick up any minerals.

An unexpected benefit of doing the Selkirk Rally was that I found out about other events coming up in the area. This usually happens when I go to a new area and have a chance to chat to other business owners and customers too – they often have good ideas for events that would suit me.

Enjoy the last of the summer this weekend.

Kind regards, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

Selkirk Car Rally 2011

Trying a new risk reversal strategy this weekend….

Hello again.

About a year ago I took a Trade stand at the above event in the Scottish Borders. I had never been to an event like this so was intrigued as to how it would go. After a rather damp and gloomy start, it picked up well and in the end, it was a good day with lots of sales.

This year I have applied to attend this Show again. The reason is that I am going to try out a new Customer Risk Reversal plan. The reason is this. Quite often when customers are tasting my liqueurs, they seem interested, but something stops them committing themselves to a purchase. What I am looking to do is to remove the barriers to buying.

What I am going to do is to offer customers the opportunity to return the goods on the day if they change their mind.  In addition, if they take to goods home and for any reason, decide they want to return them to me, they will have a year to do so. All they need to do is pack the liqueurs and send them to me, as long as the bottles are unopened and can be resold.

Now as I did the same event last year and have the sales records to see what I sold, it will be easy to compare the effect of the guarantee. Watch out for another Blog on the results. I am really looking forward to the show as the attendees were very friendly and relaxed. I suppose the kind of people who can afford a spare car to show off at Car Rally’s probably would be fairly laid back – just the kind of person who has time to come along and chat about which of my liqueurs they like best.

Have a good weekend. Kind regards, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

 

YouTube video of Hebridean Whisky Liqueur being made.

Watch Hebridean Whisky Liqueur being bottled on YouTube

Hello,

I am often asked where our brand, Hebridean Whisky Liqueur is made and who does it. As most things we buy appear to be made in China, it is quite a surprise to our customers to discover that the liqueur is not only made in Scotland but also, the filling, labelling and finishing are all carried out by hand.

During the last batch of Hebridean Whisky Liqueur, I made a short video of the process as it happened and you can view it now by clicking on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/theliqueurman?blend=5&ob=5

It was good fun making the video and even better when I discovered that YouTube would add some music and stitch the video clips together.

All my liqueurs are made in small batches to ensure freshness and all are bottled by hand. It’s a bit like a cottage industry really and each mix of liqueur is tasted by me to maintain taste consistency prior to bottling commencing. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.

The same process applies to all the liqueurs that I produce – first the basic mixture is prepared. Then I spend some time at the bottling plant adding various flavours and comparing the result with previous batches. It’s one of these rather imprecise measures, but after nearly 15 years at it, I can tell fairly quickly what needs to be added and in what quantity to get the flavour I am looking for.

If you have any similar experiences or stories like this, please get in touch as I am always interested in how others do this kind of thing.

Have a great weekend and bye for now.

Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Are you a Creature of the Web?

Getting to grips with the new ways of finding and keeping customers

Hello again,

What on earth is all this about? Listened to part of a program last night on 21 year olds and what they all thought of thing specific and general.

One of them said ‘Us 21 year olds are Creatures of the Web’. They do everything via the Web – they were born at the same time as the www got going so know nothing else. What this means is that an entire generation expect to use the Web for all their needs. What an opportunity this is, as was the opportunities in the past:

1930-1950 – Silver Screen Age

1960-1990 – TV Age

1990 to now  – PC screen and now Smart Phone Age

With Social Media expanding at a rate of knots, what are you doing about it?

It is now easier to reach your target audience, survey your customers to find out what they want and for you to be able to provide goods and services to them to satisfy their needs. A majority of employment comes in the UK from smaller companies – these are well suited to taking advantage of the new opportunities coming along.

In the recent past, to reach a large audience, vast expenditure was needed for TV and newspaper advertising – now you can join a group on Facebook and interact with current and prospective customers without the expenditure previously required to do this.

To cap it all, there are amazing new ways to sell thing – Ebay and Amazon are thinking up new ways to assist sellers and buyers constantly and Facebook and Google are not far behind.

Is there a really good reason why you are not at least having a go at these new routes to market?

Don’t know where to start? Send me a message and I’ll see if I can help you.

All the best, Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too many things to do? Have fewer, better customers?

Have a plan for less things to do, and looking after your best customers and ditch the rest – they cost you money.

Hi there again,

A lot of small businesses from time to time are overwhelmed by too many things to do. When this happens, customer service and general ‘looking after customers’ suffers. I have had this issue recently and decided the solution was to have fewer and better customers.

Really paying attention to our customers does help. It certainly gives a focus so that everyone knows what to do all the time. In the middle of an administrative task-fine, but let’s get this customer issue sorted out right now before it really eats up our time and gets very complicated. Sorting these out right away is always better than leaving it to fester.

Who is your best customer and why are they? Do they buy often from you? Would you like more like them? If so, what can you do to move some of your others customers closer to the best one you have?

How about treating them as if they are already your best customer and tell them that they are really important to you.

At the same time, why not ditch some of your worst ones? You know who I mean – the ones who won’t pay, complain all the time, have unrealistic expectations of you and your company or just want to try to bully you into giving in to their demands. Imagine how much easier it would be if you didn’t have them at all? Getting rid of them and just dealing with the best customers can be one of the most profitable things you will ever do in your business.

All this is not about giving a poor service but simply focusing on the customers who make you 80% of your profits. You might as well forget the rest, which means you have more time to get to know the goods ones better.

Why not give it a go and let me know how you get on.

have a good weekend. Roy Lewis

www.hebridean-liqueurs.co.uk