This title suggests that I am going to provide you with a quick, sure fire way to expand your business and make it more profitable. Not true, although, if you adapt this method to your own unique location, it has the potential to provide you with the means to grow, year after year.
We all know that a happy client is a potential referral source. But often we can not be absolutely sure how satisfied a client really is. People often say things that they think other people want to hear. They’re not being dishonest, just accommodating. So how do you get not only their honest comments but also get them to be satisfied with their new hearing experience?
Anonymous questionnaires are a partial answer. However, you will probably only get negative answers from the people who are REALLY unhappy and are likely to return their instruments, no matter what. The people who are neither fish nor fowl, if they provide you with feed back, will in all likelihood give you good marks since they realize you tried even if they are not satisfied. Therefore, the question remains, how do you really know that you have helped a person reach their expectations, and in doing so, created a good referral source?
Briefly, one method that I believe merits serious consideration is for you to sponsor a monthly gathering of all the clients you fit in the previous month. It can either be in your office or at a local restaurant or meeting room. Provide adequate food in relationship to the time of day. Give everyone time to get acquainted and then ask them to appoint a leader for the group before you leave or have a previously fit satisfied client lead the group. Ask them to discuss how they are doing with their new hearing and for the leader to create a synopsis of their comments. Then return to the room to address either group or individual concerns.
This approach can help your clients voice their concerns as well as their joys and accept the reality of how hearing aids work. It will help them appreciate how instruments can assist them in returning to the lively, noisy world around them. This method is not for the faint of heart or for those who will fit any instrument on anyone willing to pay the price. It can, however, provide the office with highly satisfied clients who as a by-product will more actively promote your services to others in need.
Have you ever calculated how much you spend on marketing to achieve one new sale? One office I know, a few years ago, made that calculation. It turned out it was spending $600. per new client. That seems like a lot of money. In that light, how much could a meeting such I suggest cost, and how much benefit could you obtain ffom it?
We have all become familiar with the term “Social Media.” This type of marketing is a very personal and direct social media marketing approach, minus the “media.”
