With the exception of your Ray-O-Vac, Eveready, Duracell, Power One, Etcetera, factory rep. most people think batteries are a boring subject. They are small, cheap, and rarely do you have to worry about how they will work (unless a particular company’s battery shell design is just a little bit off). So how do you make batteries exciting in your office?
In years gone by (a lot of years) a properly run office with a good active clientele list could expect to cover its office rent expense with the profit from its monthly battery sales. There was little competition from super markets, discounters, or other retailers. Most of your clients were on your battery club program or called to have you mail them. Some offices even had their outside consultants (sales personnel) deliver batteries to their client’s homes, thereby maintaining a close relationship with their clients.
Batteries were a way to keep in close contact with your clients and seldom did a person tell you that they could get batteries cheaper at “Discount Ears” down the street although almost everyone complained about having to buy them. Batteries, even in the old days, were an inexpensive fact of life for hearing aid users. But even so, it was a fact of life most of your clients could do without.
At this point I have to interrupt my train of thought to relate a TRUE story. I had a new client who bought a set of hearing aids. When it came time to deliver the instruments to his house, he refused to let me in the door. His reason? He found out that he would have to pay almost five dollars for a pack of batteries and would need two packs a month. Now bear in mind, he had already paid for his new instruments, in full, but would not let me deliver them because of the cost batteries. Finally his wife took delivery of the instruments in my office and took them home. He ended up being a happy hearing aid user (so his friends told me) but would never let me in his house or come to my office for service. For the next four years, (until I moved out west) my only contact was through his wife.
Back to batteries: They are still inexpensive and your clients still need one, two, or three packs a month, but with more competition from non-hearing aid sales locations, and where customer loyalty can frequently be characterized as “what have you done for me lately” the profit from battery sales can often take a back seat to client retention. Many offices sell batteries at a significant discount from MSRP and a good number even sell them at cost. I even know of one large office group that gives batteries away, absolutely free to ANY hearing aid user that walks in the door, and will continue to do so for the life of the person’s current instruments. The free batteries stop if the person buys a new set of instruments from a competitor. This is the most aggressive use of batteries as a client retention and business builder that I am aware of.
Every office must make its own decisions regarding how it will handle battery sales, but it is a facet of your business that should not be overlooked.
“From little acorns do large trees grow!”
