In this article I want to share with you a recent story of a simple little marketing mistake that cost one practice THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in lost revenue… and gave it all away to a competitor. Hopefully you’re not making this mistake too!
I was going to go on a bit of a rant today but, well, it’s not really a rant. It’s a quick story about something that happened to a friend recently and it really annoyed me. At first, that is.
Then I remembered… not everyone knows as much about following up with SMS as I do. (And probably not as much as you, either, if you regularly listen to me or read what I share!) So I’m sharing it with you as a valuable lesson for you and your practice.
What happened is this…
My friend was telling me about how she took her son to a local optometrist 4.5 years ago regarding an eye issue he was having. They requested her name and phone number when making the booking, which is fair enough.
Unfortunately, the optometrist wasn’t able to help so they went elsewhere and have never been back to that local optician. End of story. At least, you would THINK it was the end of the story.
Two weeks ago she received a marketing SMS from this practice, announcing their sale which offered 10% discount on all frames purchased during January. It took her a while to figure out who this message was from and why she had received it. She eventually looked them up online and realised it was the optometrist from 4.5 years earlier. And she promptly replied with “STOP” to opt out of receiving any more messages from them.
Here’s the thing…
Following up with customers via SMS is vital for small businesses, including allied health practitioners. BUT… it has to be done right.
So kudos to this practice for realising the importance of implementing SMS within their practice. However this wasn’t the way to go about it. If you ignore a client, you can’t expect them to remember you or how good your practice is if you haven’t kept in touch with them at all for years. Or even months.
I really wish they had come to me first to learn that there’s a simple SYSTEM they could have followed that would get them much better results. I suspect my friend isn’t the only one who opted out of receiving messages from them.
A little sidenote here: The new optometrist that my friend took her son to after the local one mentioned above couldn’t help has been amazing.
In fact, they’ve been so good with their service, their customer service and their follow-up that this lady and her son have now spent literally thousands of dollars with them over the last 4.5 years on eye treatments, glasses, prescription sunglasses and peripherals. Plus, they’ve referred numerous other new customers to them.
Oh, and apparently they’re a little on the pricey side too. But I’m told their clients are happy to pay because of the high quality and service they receive, including the specific and personalised (yet automated!) follow ups.
ClinicKonnect is a simple-to-use tool that can easily connect your Cliniko and Keap (previously Infusionsoft) accounts. This makes it super easy to follow up with your clients in a highly personalised, specific way.
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