The end of 2015

I am probably one of the rare folk that wishes Christmas lasted more than a day! Purely because the build up to it goes on for so long and then suddenly that’s it over. The Marten Julian office used to close for the week prior to Christmas so staff could enjoy the build up but those kind of dreams aren’t realistic anymore. Not because we don’t want staff to enjoy Christmas but more as we want our clients to have a lovely Christmas and for a lot of them that means sitting back relaxing and watching racing without work getting in the way.

We now offer two festive services. Our Winter Bulletin Book was published the week before Christmas and takes you right through to the end of the season updating all the main horses Marten is following this season. Jodie also updates her point to pointer selections. I have reduced the price slightly to allow for the section that covered the Christmas racing.

For people who don’t have time to read a book we publish an Online Preview to cover the festive racing. Mind you at over 7,000 words it isn’t a quick read.

I have done increased marketing for our Cheltenham Festival services this year as I want to ensure previous subscribers don’t miss out on the 20% discount we offer for people if they order by 31 December. I have to say it always amazes me how many people don’t take advantage of this and then order at full price year after year. I know from a business perspective this is good but I come from a client perspective. The book is £5 cheaper and the full Package is £10 cheaper!! I think I am going to prepare a video to try and demonstrate what clients get as part of the package as I get so many queries asking what the difference is in the services.

I don’t write resolutions of specific plans as such but I do have a wish list. I have written four out – one for each quarter – and in it my aims for the business. Interestingly they all seem to be technology based which makes it sound like I am excluding our lovely clients who are not online but this isn’t the case. By utilising technology I can offer an improved service to them as well. For example a lot of our clients who aren’t online can get emails through their smartphones and this is something I am targeting with new services.

I am also researching new text message based services and reminders about our services as we have so many clients who forget what they’ve ordered and could potentially miss out on information.

We have received some wonderful feedback on Strictly Classified and had quite a few people turn up to our office to buy it. This is a rare thing to happen for me as predominantly we are obviously a mail order company. Jodie, Juliet and I have enjoyed the visitors. If you have thought about buying it but haven’t please get in touch as I have an extract of the book I can send out to you to help you make up your mind.

Anyway must dash Ian Carnaby has just sent through his information for his fortnightly publication so I need to prepare that.

Wishing you an enjoyable remainder of the festive season and a happy healthy 2016.