5 quick wins: revitalising an underused service

It is easy to get excited if a member of your team has a new qualification in a specialist field, or if you have taken on a new product range, but after the initial splurge, you can find sales tail off. It probably isn’t that you have met all the need that there is: it’s just that you haven’t reached out far enough.

Here are five ideas to help you revitalise an underused service:

1. You need a plan. Just like launching a new service, you need to plan your approach to marketing. Write down all the ideas, and at this stage don’t worry if they are good or bad.
2. Look back before you go forth. Examine the initial promotion you did. Who did you target, and what resulted in sales or booked appointments? Can you do more of the same? Analyse your results to make new activities as effective as possible.
3. How long did you promote the new service for? Often we need to persist longer than we think; customers take seven or more exposures to a message before they act. Repeat the message in different media – the practice newsletter, as a footer in reminder letters, in the practice window.
4. The personal approach always works. Train staff to identify who might benefit from your new service or product. They can give personalised professional advice, showcase the product, or book an appointment if the customer shows interest. People who are already in your practice are warm to your business so encourage the staff to think how they can make the most of this.
5. Reach further afield. If you offer the only dry eye clinic in the area, reach out beyond your usual patient base. Contact optical, ophthalmological and GP colleagues with a letter about your new service and the problems it can solve for them and their patients.

Make sure you also follow up with a chat or a call and you will find a fresh source of people who are grateful that your service can help them.