I found a great article in The Globe and Mail about treating your loyal customers well. In this article the writer, Dave McGinn, took his cell phone plan to a competitor after 10 years of loyal service because he did not feel appreciated. I know I have felt this way before when dealing with companies. We all want to feel special. My first reaction after reading the article is what do we do for our excellent customers? Then I wondered can we even explain what a great customer is to our veterinary practice? Is it longevity or amount spent in a year or amount referred? The more I thought about this I became determined to find out who are best customers are? I am going to develop firm metrics of what makes someone a great customer. Then I am going to develop a reward system for these clients. Finally, we will make it known to our clientele that we have a reward system for our clients. I expect our customers will appreciate that we are being active in recognizing them. When it is transparent they will know what to expect and what they need to do to become a superior client. I’ll let you know how it works out.
Does anyone have experience doing this? Let us know what you did and how it worked out.
2 comments:
Mike
I know Iose more clients (usually just temporarily, but it is still costly) by what I don't do for them rather than by mideeds or mistakes in performance. We're in a service oriented profession and had better realize that it is imperative to train our employees to anticipate client needs before the client realizes he has a need and fulfill that need. That is what will make us indispensable to our clients. Re-read "9 1/2 things Disney Would Do If They Owned Your Practice" by Lee.
Good blog, Mike. David Mc
Hey Mike:
Dr. Joe Manning (DVM, MBA) who now works for Intervet, just hosted a CEC session about "services marketing" and the SERVQUAL model in optimizing practice loyalty (to improve clinic longevity and profitability). He also referenced Ed Blach's study presented at the AAEP meeting in 2007. I'd be happy to get you more info if you think it'd be useful. Personally, I have a 20+ year background in business management, marketing, sales, etc. in consumer packaged goods and service industries. A lot of what he was encouraging falls in line with my own experiences outside of the vet industry, so I'm comfortable with passing along the content and contact info.
Cheers (and great blog, btw).
Naomi Keller
South Valley Large Animal Clinic
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