By:  David H. Khalili

Founder of DentalLabSupport.com

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you've seen our posts on the advantages of sales automation for your dental lab. And understandably, most of them focus on turning your leads into customers. But if you think that's where the capabilities of marketing and sales automation end, think again. It's not just a tool for increasing your customers. Instead, it can also be an invaluable help in increasing your customer loyalty.

Why Repeat Customers Matter

Especially as a small dental lab, chances are much of your marketing focus is on acquiring new customers. And that's perfectly understandable; after all, they are a natural go-to source to grow your small business. But that doesn't mean you should ignore your existing customers! In fact, turning one-time customers into loyal customers who come back to you time after time is not only cost-effective, it also provides a considerable return on your investment.

When marketing to your existing customers, you have one crucial advantage: they already know about your brand and its value to their lives, so you have to spend considerably less resources on convincing them to buy from you. That's why on average,encouraging a repeat purchase is between 5 and 10 times less expensive than convincing someone to buy from you for the first time.

And the value of repeat customers doesn't stop there: on average, 80 percent of your revenue will come from only 20 percent of your existing customers, so it makes sense that an increase in customer retention of as little as 5 percent can lead to a 75 percent increase in profitability.

Acquiring new customers is sexy. But repeat customers are the true engine for your small business growth. And sales automation can help you get there.

How Sales Automation Can Increase Repeat Customers

You probably know the general parameters of sales automation, but just to recap: it's the process of taking the leads you generated through your website and other sources, and gradually leading ("nurturing") them toward becoming customers using automated emails. These emails seek above all to inform your leads about both your company and your industry, which serves to slowly nudge them toward becoming sales-qualified.

So far, that's common knowledge. But you can also use the same type of automated emails to target existing customers and encourage repeat purchases.

Imagine the following scenario from a first-time buyer's perspective: you've purchased an iPhone accessory from a local electronics store. You just needed a new case because your old one broke, and the shop just happened to be close-by. And while you had a pleasant shopping experience, you probably won't go back anytime soon because of a lack of need for the store's products.

But after your purchase, you get an email from the sales manager thanking you for your business, and asking you to get back to him should any problems come up. A week later, Apple announces the new iPhone, and you get an email from the store telling you all about it. After another week, you get an overview of products related to the case you bought for your phone. And finally, about a month after your initial buying decision, a coupon arrives that allows you to shop at the store again for a 15% discount that's exclusive to current customers.

Suddenly, that electronics store is on your mind! It's not difficult to guess just where you'll go should you need a new phone or accessory in the near future - you certainly won't get that personal attention from your local Walmart or Best Buy. 

And here's the best part: from a business perspective, all of the above emails can be automated using CRM workflow management so they require little to no effort from your team once the initial setup is complete. 

In short, sales automation allows businesses to offer a personalized after-sales experience that will be sure to increase repeat purchases. And considering the impact these repeat customers can have on your business success, it's definitely worth a try! If you have any questions about how a CRM that takes advantage of sales automation can help you increase your repeat customers, please contact us.

DentalLabSupport.com  1-888-715-9099.

How to Choose The Best Social Media Marketing Services

The Best Social Media Marketing Services

By:  David H. Khalili

When it is time for your business to assign resources for social media marketing, consider utilizing a skilled marketing firm.  With the right marketing in place, your social media activities can generate plenty of qualified leads that will easily convert into customers.

Social media marketing services have a lot of value.  Review the following checklist to make sure you get the most out of your social media marketing services firm:

Online marketing strategy – does the firm provide alignment with your overall online marketing strategy and your social media marketing initiatives?  Make sure there is coordination between your web site campaigns, emails and your social media posts so that you can fully capitalize on your marketing campaign investment.

Timing and frequency – work with your social media marketing services partner to make sure your posts are timed based on your target audience preferences.  Some marketing companies simply default to early morning social media posts.  This can be a crucial mistake because some target markets may prefer to look at social media posts at other times of the day, so your timing is important.  Make sure to review and test some posts at various times to determine what is the most effective.  Also there is a balance in the frequency of posts.  Too many social media posts can flag your business as spam or abusive.  Too few social media posts can be ignored entirely.  Again, monitoring and tuning is an essential part of social media marketing services.

SEO – search engine optimization (SEO) should be utilized in all social media activities.  This not only makes the most out of your keyword and phrase research, but it also helps you to improve your overall search engine rankings.

Feedback – review all feedback and comments from social media activities and be as interactive as possible with your target audience.  Even when the comments are negative you should handle them professionally according to your business philosophy and culture.  The right approach can turn a negative post into a good learning experience for other readers that foster loyalty and engagement.

For more information please call us directly info@dentallabsupport.com or 1-888-715-9099.  Thank you. www.DentalLabSupport.com

Zirconia Crowns: 3 C’s keys

 What dentists find attractive about full zirconia crowns are their simplicity. The benefits are clear: fast response to patient needs, reduced work time and chair-side costs. All these, when met together, result in a profitable dental practice.

 Through the years I have developed a simple list of rules that I use to rank dental lab service. I call it the “3 C’s rule”.

-The 3 C’s RULE-

Communication

I like to work with technicians who share valuable information before taking a decision. For example, when I send dental impression for full zirconia crowns I like to be informed about work model defects, color match doubts and especially deadlines. If there no certainty about the quality of the final work, I prefer to repeat the impression or correct my preparation.








Consistency
For me this is the most important rule.  What I hate the most is unpredictable work, which means more chair side costs and a possible bad dentist reputation. Many dentists across US, point consistency out as the most common reason for changing their dental laboratory services. So take care about this.




Customization

I will always choose a technician that can customize my lab work, especially, when full zirconia crowns are in scene. New zirconia systems give dentists versatile options for achieving their esthetic goals, so offering customization is always a good idea.
Finally, I know price is important to be competitive, but only within certain limits. No dentist would risk his reputation for low cost lab work.

Dental Lab Tools to Manage Your Busy Schedule

Dental Lab Tools to Manage Your Busy Schedule

By David H. Khalili, CEO DentalLabSupport.com

Dental Laboratories need to use proper tools to manage their time and schedule in order to maintain competitive excellence in the industry with much larger players. Because of advances in IT programs and infrastructure, the tools for time management normally reserved for large corporations are now available for small dental labs. Many of these tools come in integrated packages which provide the tools you need to run your dental lab in one affordable package. 

The following 4 tools provide you systems management for your dental lab to increase your available time.

1. Workflow Planning/Whiteboard

One of the most powerful business tools of the 20th century was a whiteboard. Work planning, task assignment and scheduling, and goal setting were all managed efficiently from whiteboards. For modern business systems, a physical whiteboard is no longer the best method for workflow planning because the time lost in transferring items from a whiteboard to your computer systems increases both time necessary for planning and the chance of items not being copied into your computer system. 

A modern workflow planning system will give you tools to manage planned activities, assign tasks in specific order, and plan in such a way that everyone on your team knows where you are going, the time-frame to get there, and who takes the lead at any given time. 

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

An essential part of any dental lab sales or marketing system, a CRM is a software program designed specifically to track and manage contacts with your customers and leads. A CRM saves businesses time in multiple ways. Preventing lost leads, reducing redundancies in customer service communication, and managing your customer database from a centralized place are all part of how a CRM saves you time in your business. 

A good CRM for time management will be accessible from your sales team's mobile devices. This saves time and data as you are able to capture leads and store them directly into your database without carrying business cards in your pockets, transferring data from notepads to excel, or any other of a variety of systems people attempt to use to manage contact information. 

3. Automation Software

Although automation software is an obvious time-saver, many small dental lab owners do not know how affordable and accessible modern automation systems are. Many software programs have automatic processes for marketing emails, follow-up responses, integration with multiple software systems (ERP, accounting and financial, CRM, WMS) to give your business accurate and timely information across your software platforms. 

While automation software and hardware used to be added to a business's IT systems, this has changed. Advances in cloud computing and storage have moved many business process management systems online. Online clouds enable many software providers to integrate automation systems and API's within their core software at an affordable price for small businesses. 

4. Cloud-Based Software

Although not a specific tool, cloud-based software programs offer small dental labs several time saving tools that traditional in-house platforms do not. Cloud-based software offers reduced install times, gives you universal access to your software, and reduces your costs involved with in-house data centers. 

A cloud-based software system is accessible via an internet connection, meaning any web-connected device can be used by you and your team to get work done. From a quality software company, it also provides you better security and infrastructure than most small businesses can afford to put in on their own. 

Workforce planning, CRM, automation and cloud-based software can all be found in separate platforms or integrated into one. Because of advances in technology, these 4 tools are all available to small businesses at affordable prices and in good time. For more information about how our CRM fills all the roles of these tools, please contact us today.

DentalLabSupport.com 

1-888-715-9099

5 Ways to Develop Prospects for Dental Labs

5 Ways to Develop Prospects for Dental Labs -- By David H. Khalili, CEO DentalLabSupport.com

In the digital market, there are many dental laboratories vying for the same dentist. As web offerings increase, the potential customer base essentially stagnates, or at best, grows more slowly than the products and services offered, it will become increasingly difficult to find new prospects. To stand out from the crowd, your business has to do more than just offer a product. It also must do so in a unique and memorable way. Your dental lab must think about more than the current sale, it must also consider how to make a one time purchaser into a long term customer.

Offer something unique. Your product and services may be something which is available in one form or another from a variety of dental labs, but that does not mean that you cannot have, or create, a unique marketing draw. Perhaps you feel that you have insight into the industry which other dental labs do not. Blog about your knowledge, or if you have enough detailed technical information to do so, write a whitepaper. This demonstrates your specialized knowledge, it makes you an expert in a crowd of websites who limit communication to generic FAQs.

When you offer something, get something back from a potential prospect in return. For example, if you have something on your website that you offer to customers as a free download, such as a whitepaper, request their email or other contact information. This contact information does not automatically translate into a prospect, but it does indicate specific interest in your product by at least one specific user.

Ask permission. There's a saying that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission, but just the opposite may be true when gathering potential prospects. Do not subscribe people to your mailing list without expressly communicating your intent to do so. It may seem like an obvious match from your perspective, but you need to consider the perspective of the potential customer as well. People sometimes spend their first couple of minutes with morning email weeding through the junk mail. It's an annoying reality of email, but don't be an annoyance to someone who may one day become a customer. Consider how many times you have added an email to a spam filter versus how many times you have gone into your spam filter and removed an existing entry. Once you are in someone's spam filter, you are likely to stay there permanently. Don't get into the spam filter in the first place by sending unsolicited emails.

Build on your reputation with existing dentists. This sounds simple, but there is a wrong way and a right way to do it. The right way is to be completely open and forthright about it. If one customer is happy with your service, tell them directly that you value them and their ideas about other potential customers. Facebook received some negative publicity when it went about this process the wrong way: Facebook decided that if a customer used a product, they could be translated into an unintended spokesperson for that product. Public reaction was terrible. Build a relationship, not a database.

Ask satisfied customers to let you mention them. In a business to business relationship, this is a win-win proposition. The customer expands their presence and your product gains legitimacy by actual testimonials. It may be tempting to rework the statement you put on your website in a testimonial, but resist the temptation. Ethics issues aside, the customer may be able to address potential customers better than you can simply because they are both in the same, or nearly the same position.

For more information on how to identify and gain prospects, and turn them into long term and loyal clients, please contact DentalLabSupport.com or by calling 1-888-715-9099.