DEFINING YOUR AFTER-SALES SERVICE APPROACH
Knowing how to sell a hearing aid to someone in your office is easy. Figuring out how to stay in touch with them after they walk out the door is more difficult.
When Elaine Allison’s 83-year-old father-in-law meets his friends for coffee each week, two subjects often come up: health and technology. They discuss their aches and pains, their new doctor, and the new gadgets they have to make life easier. For many, those gadgets are digital hearing aids, and their recommendation is an important part of any sales strategy.
You can bet if the customer is not happy, they won’t come back and they won’t recommend you and they may even speak poorly of the service or quality of their device, not only at coffee but now online to 500 of their friends
- Elaine Allison, customer service expert
The power of recommendation
Allison is a customer service expert who has helped scores of American and Canadian companies to learn how to get and keep customers coming in the door. She says that one of the best after-sales strategies involves encouraging peer-to-peer recommendation through all sales channels including social media, websites, and print media.
One way to assure this recommendation is through careful and consistent follow-up, and the internet is increasingly becoming the best place to do this.
“Customer service is moving online,” she says. “It is cost-effective, efficient and can keep you more closely connected to your customers.” Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all good channels for sharing customer testimonials and encouraging recommendation.
It’s a tactic that Richard Moss, Owner of Oxford Hearing Centre in England, has used in his business. A YouTube earwax removal clinic has received over a million views on YouTube, and Moss says he has received many referrals from that video.