When asked to cite the key ingredients for business success, that great hotelier Conrad Hilton famously replied: “Location, location, location”. Modern business consultants would certainly opt to add image to the recipe.
Turn up in soiled overalls and driving a beaten-up old van laden with ladders and half-empty tins of paint and you are a mere painter and decorator. Wear a smart designer label suit and arrive in a sparkling white Golf GTi and you are transformed into an interior designer, commanding three or four times the fee for essentially the same job.
It can work the other way too. I once advised a highly successful debt recovery firm whose fees had reached a plateau to ditch their sparkling fleet of Jaguar XJs in favour of modest little Mazdas – and to take their clients for a pub pie and a pint rather than to swish restaurants.
They dealt with humble credit controllers – the lowest of the low, with the dingiest of offices and the most thankless if vital of tasks – rather than high-flying chief accountants or finance directors. Such people hated the success of others being flaunted in their face and would react by bitching that they must be paying too high a level in fees. Disliked by their bosses for settling bills too quickly and collecting debts to slowly, hated by clients for chasing and suppliers by not paying out, despised by sales staff when they tightened up credit lines to clients and probably disliked at home by their wife and kids, with the dog biting them too, such poor creatures were happiest pouring our their souls – and giving their business – to reps they perceived to be in a like position.
Net result of the change of company cars? Fees that over the following year were teased upwards by up to 25 percent.
We are continually judged on appearances. Send a limousine, complete with liveried chauffeur to pick an important overseas client up from the airport, maybe with a welcoming box of his favourite cigars or a malt whiskey gift pack waiting on the back seat and you will created an aura of success that will help cement that crucial deal or add a zero or two to your fees.
Similarly, turn up in appropriate style when visiting clients – potential or existing – and you will have gone a long way towards winning or retaining their confidence, and their business.
Hire fees currently run at £3 and upwards per mile plus £35 per hour waiting time, with a minimum rate of £70 or more per booking for a gleaming Mercedes in London. For comparison, Chauffeur Drive North East, operating out of Newcastle upon Tyne, run a fleet of Mercedes Benz S-Class limousines and Chrysler people carriers at rates from £30 an hour. This might all seem an extravagance at a time when cost containment has become almost obsessive, however, using chauffeur drive can actually make very sound financial success.
With the onerous task of trying to find parking spaces lifted from your shoulders, you’ll be able to pack more meetings into each day and can also be confident of being on time. You’ll already be exchanging handshakes to close the deal when your rivals are running an hour late, still desperately trying to park. You will enjoy truly door-to-door service, emerging from your meeting to be greeted by the smiles of your driver, rather than the smirk of a traffic warden slapping a parking fine notice on your windscreen or, worst still, the clampers or tow-away crew hard at work to ruin your day. What’s more, while en-route you can deal with the paper work or safely make those essential phone calls.
Unlike taxis, which never seem to be around when you want them, your driver will be at your beck and call.
For very special occasions you might go the whole hog and rent a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Silver Spirit from a company like Cameo Chauffeur Drive, www.cameoexec.com, that will cost you a six-hour day rate of £350 in London or £50 per hour of an evening.
Says Cameo’s Garry Higgins: “Our service includes set-down and collections at all airports, jet parks and heliports. We use the latest technology to track all flights while they are in the air and through to landing so we can ensure proper meet and greet for the passenger as he or she emerges from the customs hall.
Chauffeurs UK, tel: +44 (0)20 8404 2356, www.chauffeur-limo.com, believe professionalism is key, said a spokesman: “We understand that the image we project must reflect our clients’ own high standards and expectations. Our chauffeurs are carefully chosen for their personal standards – they must have smart appearance, be skilled drivers and possess extensive route knowledge and they need to be fully trustworthy so business clients can be confident that overheard conversations will remain totally confidential. Smoking is a total no-no for our drivers and we ensure our vehicles are always presented in immaculate condition.”
Should you really want to impress, why not drive yourself but turn up in a brand, spanking new hired Ferrari or vintage E-Type Jaguar? – or you could even rent James Bond’s Aston Martin – not the DB5 in the movies but the actual British racing green DB3 that Ian Fleming wrote about in the novels. Now, that will impress…
An industry perspective: Claremont Executive Services
Although Claremont Executive Services is one of London’s leading chauffeur hire companies they are regarded as one of the capital’s best kept secrets. Traditionally they have only supplied their services to the likes of royalty, heads of state and artists from the entertainment industry but in recent years, due to popular demand, have expanded their profile bringing their chauffeur driven expertise to many of London’s five star hotels, fortune 500 companies and direct to the public sector.
Claremont’s humble origins began in the late seventies with two entrepreneurs; William Neivens and Stuart House who in their own words were very dissatisfied with the level of service chauffeur firms were offering at the time and were encouraged to open their own chauffeur hire company. Since then they have grown from a two car enterprise into a company with a fleet of over 60 vehicles providing services on a multi-national level. When asked, what in your opinion sets you apart from the others, the managing director of Claremont, Jason Ipekdjian answered, “Claremont was built on five principles: refinement, assistance, reliability, discretion and above all safety. By never compromising on these values and simply by listening to our customers, we have managed to constantly maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and develop new clientele. We also take the attitude that nothing is to great, the full resources of our company are always at the disposal of our clients, whether they need a ticket for Wimbledon, a fine rare whisky or a private jet, their needs will always be met.
The company’s world class fleet, although predominately Mercedes Benz consists of such marques as BMW, Bentley, Maybach and Rolls Royce but they pride themselves in being able to provide you with your vehicle of choice whatever that may be. The company’s chauffeurs are second to none. They are career men with extensive local knowledge and driving skills, comparable to an expert driver, personal assistant, concierge all rolled into one.
In conclusion, though Claremont is merely a name, the word executive means, “having the function to carry out the plans or orders of others.” This sums up the company very accurately as they do this with pride and enthusiasm. If you are still not convinced why not put them to the test yourself next time you are in London.
