Moving Your Clocks (And Your Business) Forward

We are officially two days away from the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. At 2:00 a.m. this Sunday morning (or Saturday night), you will need to push your clocks forward by one hour to make the time 3:00 a.m. Many Canadians aren’t exactly fans of the whole “spring forward” thing because they each lose an hour of sleep. But, as a business owner, DST provides you with some interesting opportunities to move your business forward along with the clocks.

Promote a ritual your business can help with.

Every March, people need to be reminded of Daylight Saving Time. So why not turn the occasion into an annual event your business can help people with? Are you an auto mechanic? Remind your customers that they may need to change their winter tires to their all-seasons and offer a DST discount during the week after the clocks have been moved ahead.

“Many people change their smoke alarm batteries when Daylight Saving Time takes effect,” notes Brian Morris on PsPrint.com, “Guess who came up with that idea? A battery marketer. Similarly, you can develop a DST ritual your customers should follow. A mechanic, for example, could promote DST tune-ups; while a carpet cleaning service could promote DST as the perfect time for a whole-house carpet clean.”

Advertise the health benefits of your products and/or services.

Do you own and operate a gym? Do you sell sporting equipment? Do you offer lawn furniture at your store? Products and services that promote either active lifestyles or, at the very least, enjoying the great outdoors can be advertised with a DST spin. Because springing forward offers us all more daylight, people can be encouraged to utilize the sunshine to their advantage – with the help of your business, of course.

“When the day is lighter later, people tend to participate in more outdoor activities after work,” says ProCon.org, “Hendrik Wolff, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University, stated, because of DST ‘people engaged in more outdoor recreation and less indoor-TV watching…An additional 3 percent of people engaged in outdoor behaviours who otherwise would have stayed indoors.’”

Offer customers savings to make up for their “loss”.

Over the course of the next week or so, a great conversation starter can be “Have you made up for your lost hour of sleep yet?” The great thing about beginning chats with customers this way is that you can use it to introduce special discounts. Jump on your social media accounts and offer everyone who responds with interesting answers a special discount in your store.

“Daylight isn’t the only thing that can be saved during DST,” writes Morris, “What can you help your customers save? Money, time, hassle, vehicles (via maintenance), lives (via healthy lifestyles), etc. Think about your product and service benefits to identify what it is that you can help your customers save, then develop a DST promotion around that concept.”

No matter how you choose to utilize Daylight Saving Time to market your business, one thing is for sure. There’s no better way to accept credit card and debit card payments from your customers than with the revolutionary Poynt Smart Terminal. Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost to learn more!