What did you say? Reach...
Do you remember Jack Palance in City Slickers? He had a message for Billy Crystal as he held up a single finger. It was (may I paraphrase?) “One thing was the most important thing,” but Billy had to figure out what that one thing was for himself. The same goes for any business person.
- We all like to think that there are many things that make our business stand head and shoulders above our competition, but if you had to choose just one thing… what would it be? Price – location – personnel – pricing – personal service – advertising – product selection – knowledge – credentials – return or trial period – in home service – range of services – payment plans – referral sources – community involvement – longevity – etcetera. There are many things that an office can rightly claim makes it stand out from its competition, but what is that ONE thing, above all others, that you think makes your office(s) unique?
Most offices I have visited, when I ask this question, immediately cite their “service.” But can we believe this is true, if almost everyone thinks that their service is head and shoulders above that provided by their competition. For sure, some offices truly do provide unparalleled service, and someone has to be the best, which leaves us wondering if the rest aren’t being misled by their own advertising.
Large corporations are always conducting focus groups to find out how they and their products are perceived. They want to improve themselves and increase their market penetration just the way we want to. Just because using a focus group approach is beyond the means of most Dispensing or Audiology offices doesn’t mean you should ignore what your clients can tell you.
Have you recently surveyed your clients to find out what they really think of your office? It doesn’t cost much to have a questionnaire sent to your current clients and to your “tested but not sold” clients, but it does take time and thought to construct questions that will help guide you to your ultimate goal, not just feed your ego. To be useful, the questions need to be neutral in tone allowing your clients to give you, or preferably the agency you have hired, honest usable information. Besides finding out what you are doing right, you want to discover what needs to be improved, changed or discarded.
The results may help you settle on that one thing that makes your office unique and allow you to build on it, not to the exclusion of other important items, but to use it to pull everything your office does up to a new level.
