Dear Ms. Marketing: Holding on to Good Customers

The answer the probably nothing. Most companies take their best customers for granted. A lot of companies talk about how their best customer loves them, but do nothing to proactively ensure their business. Don’t you just hate to walk into the bank and see their offer giving new customers a lower discount on loans, credit cards and a higher interest rate on savings accounts than you have. And you have loved that bank for years.

I have some ideas that might help you to keep that key account along with your other loyal customers.

1. Talk to your accounts. Get on the phone and ask questions. It doesn’t have to be the doctor, ask the staff about your service.  Talk to the assistants about new products that you have to offer.  We don’t realize that they are our salesperson along with the doctor.
2. E-mail. Set up an e-mail where you can send messages to your customers about delivery of packages and also use the e-mail to give value. Your customer will get value from any tips or ideas you may have for their practice.
3. Create partnership with your community. Join in on local ball teams, cheerleaders and other organizations to help promote dentistry.  We are doing a full page ad in one of the local high school football programs for $125 for 5,000 copies. The ad is from one of our billboards and it will read Change your smile and your change your life, call your dentist today and ask for a smile by The Lab 2000. This approach also works with accounts outside of your community. We help sponsor a little league in Texas that one of our doctor’s coaches.
4. Create a testimonial ad campaign. Make a list of your top ten customers and ask them to say something great about you and your lab. Then have this printed and send out in a statement stuffer or post on your Web site. This will let others know who you work for and how important your customers are to you.
5. Never forget any of your customers. Make sure that you treat all of your doctors as if they were your one and only. The bottom line is they probably were at one time.

The loss of a customer, big or small, can not only be financially devastating, it can also be emotionally devastating. It creates a loss of confidence in your company. Invest the money into keeping all of your customers and they will all become loyal customers.

Author Information

Dena Lanier

Lanier is president and owner of The Lab 2000, a dental laboratory serving a national market out of Columbus, Ga. She started her career in the dental field in 1980 with dentures and partials.  Since opening her laboratory is 1995, she has grown The Lab 2000 into one of the largest female-owned laboratories in the country. The Lab 2000 maintains it membership with the National Dental Laboratory Association, along with Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Eastern Conference and the Southeastern Conference of Dental Laboratories. She is the 2009 president of the Georgia Dental Laboratory Association and serves as an NADL laboratory representative.