When Matt Smith was booking a limousine for his wedding day, a seed was planted in his head that soon gave birth to Allure Limousines. Over four years, Matt and his partners have developed and grown Allure Limousines into one of Australia’s most premium limousine companies. Bearing resemblance to almost every service-driven industry, the key to success is simple – outstanding customer service; a quality Matt and his partners take the utmost pride in when it comes to Allure Limousines.
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While the company has witnessed phenomenal growth since its inception, it has faced its own set of issues amidst modern times; from a price sensitive market and competitors undercutting the rates to the undying need of supplying customers with state-of-the-art vehicles, but Matt and his partners are ready to battle out these issues and face the fight. Interestingly, Allure Limousines has recently added yet another feather to its cap with the brand new H4 Hummer 24-seater limousine that has taken the wedding industry by storm.
Matt Smith takes us through his four-year journey with Allure Limousines; from AL’s core strategy and strengths to the company’s weaknesses and challenges.
Luxurylaunches – What was it like to pursue an interest in limousines?
Mr. Matt – One word? Expensive!
The idea for entering the limousine business came from our own experience, of poor service, in booking a limo for our wedding in 2014. With extensive experience in the hospitality industry with a focus on customer service, we knew we could introduce a new and better level of service than was present in the existing market.
Having been an employee for most of my life, it has been a big learning curve, but we’ve loved every minute of it. We’ve learnt so much about not just the limousine and wedding industries, but also about running a small business. Things like search engine optimization, website design, marketing, cashflow and much more. But the one consistent thing we’ve always maintained is our outstanding customer service.
Over the past four years, Allure Limousines has witnessed phenomenal growth. What obstacles have you faced while expanding your company?
There are several obstacles that we’ve faced, but we tackle them head on.
One of the most significant, like most industries nowadays, is our competitors undercutting the market & driving prices down. New limousines can cost from $250,000 to in excess of $400,000 so the hourly price reflects the significant investment made.
Another obstacle is clients comparing the cost of hiring a 30-year-old Ford Fairlane limo with no Bluetooth functionality, no interior lights and a worn interior and exterior, to a newer, more modern, stretch limo with ALL the bells and whistles. We strive to provide a vehicle to suit every client and every occasion and as a result, deciding which vehicle to purchase next whilst not an obstacle, garners significant discussion.
In this digital age, does the concept of social media really help you engage with your customers?
Social media provides us with a massive platform and easy way of engaging with our previous, current and future clients.
Millennials love social media, so we regularly post interesting and relevant content to both our Instagram and Facebook pages.
We write blogs that seek to address questions our clients need answered and share these across the multiple platforms.
Let’s shift gears and talk about infrastructure. What advances are needed to develop your business further?
Well, for starters, Allure Limousines will be requiring a new warehouse before we can purchase any more cars because our current base is full. We envisage moving to new premises in late 2019 to enable further growth of our rapidly expanding business.
Also, just on the point of infrastructure, it seems, particularly in Perth, when new hotels or roads are designed, there is no consideration given to proper access to larger vehicles like ours. We would love to see this changed.
How have wedding parties in Perth responded to your latest offering, the H4 Hummer 24-seater Limousine?
The interest in the H4 Hummer has been phenomenal due to its commanding presence on the road, and the media exposure that it has received.
The beauty of the H4 Hummer is that it caters to those larger groups, whether it be used for wedding car hire or school ball limo hire and means that the entire party can travel together, rather than being split across two or even three cars.
What do you offer as compared your competitors in Perth?
Our exceptional customer service is the recurrent theme we receive in feedback from our clients. Without exception, our wedding clients state that we were the easiest company to engage with when planning their wedding.
Having been married in 2014, we fully understand and remember the stresses associated with planning the big day. We seek to take the stress out of organising the transportation on the day and work hard to achieve that aim.
What opportunities does the future hold for the limousine market, and what is your vision for Allure Limousines in the next 5 years?
When we started Allure Limousines for limo hire Perth in 2014, we had a goal of building the business at a rate of five cars in five years, and so far we are on track to achieve this.
Looking forward to the next five years, I think it would be a reasonable goal to add another five cars. We don’t necessarily want to be the biggest limousine hire company in Perth, but we do want to be the BEST!
So, providing that we can successfully maintain our amazing level of service, we think that this is completely achievable.