Adding value is not one of those management buzz words we use loosely but don't really understand. To your patients, adding value can simply mean doing more than you promise to do. The idea behind adding value is that the customer gains a perceived benefit without having to pay for it - or pay very little, compared with its value to the customer.
Adding value offers many benefits to your hospital. It differentiates you from your competitors and builds customer loyalty. When clients receive more than they ask for, they feel they are getting their money's worth. This dramatically reduces, if not eliminates, buyer's remorse. Another major benefit to adding value is it allows you to charge more because you offer more than your competitors. Finally, adding value builds, strengthens and confirms your reputation as the cream of the crop. When you offer more than you promise, clients view you as the best in your industry, and you are.
Adding value means doing more than you promise to do. Ideally you want to offer something that has a low cost to you but a high value to your customers.
Here are some easy, inexpensive ways you can add value:
1. Offer a strong guarantee. This helps you gain customer confidence and will reduce buyer's remorse. The guarantee should be meaningful and not too restrictive. Offering to refund money or to redo a service if not satisfied is an easy way to reduce pre-sale apprehension.
2. Give free bonuses. Anything from an extra product to a pamphlet or free how-to guide works. People love free things, especially when they are not expecting them. Everybody gives away the free water bottle and basic educational information. Brainstorm - what can you do differently?
3. Do you have a unique model or approach to doing business that sets you apart from your competition? If you approach doing business differently, or have a different method or process that works better than your competitor's, use that to your advantage. Even if it seems small, sell the benefits of it. Show patients how you are different.
4. Clearly communicate who you are and how you are different. Having a clear marketing message not only helps weed out companies that don't need your services, but it adds value. Prospects know exactly what you do and how you can help them. You are saving them time and they appreciate that.
5. Have an outstanding Web site. Have several pages with detailed information about your hospital and what you do. Educate visitors any way you can. Offer free value with articles and an e-zine. Offer other resources they can check out, links you recommend. You will shine when compared to your competition. I've found that many hospitals have great resources on their Web sites, but don't promote them. Be the place patients go to first for research!
6. Isolate the largest problem your clients have with a particular field. Then deliver the service and put an emphasis on solving that complaint.
7. Take care of your clients in a unique way. Look at everything you do and do it better. Constantly push yourself to do better.
Do people really want a good deal, or do they want a good value? Adding value is something all hospitals need to do to differentiate themselves from the pack - especially since hospitals are often viewed as a commodity by the public. Adding value is a way to raise your rates and stand a head above the rest. Differentiate yourself from the others in your industry; add value to what you offer. You will be surprised to see clients expect to pay you more, because you are worth every dime.
Copyright (c) 2007 A Marketing Connection
In the report "The Rebirth" by John Reese, a veteran internet entrepreneur, he reminisces of how he built a top 500 most visited website in the world. As a result of the traffic, he attracted several contracts of over half a million dollar a year each, for adverting on his website. Then one day he woke up to phone calls one after the other from his advertising clients. There were all calling to inform him of a breach of contract. They explained that they were canceling all their commitment with him and if he wanted he would go ahead and sue them. But they also noted there was nothing left to sue for. Driven by mostly flawed business models, the infamous online bubble burst was here. Millions of dollars were lost.
Mr. Reese has since reinvented himself to one of the most successful and popular internet business men in the world. But the disease that hauled the whole of the last century's internet economy into a nose dive is still much alive. Indeed the disease is no different from the recent vibrant schemes of "investing" (sic) that have mushroomed in the country, which the media oft refers to as pyramid schemes.
There is such an inherent desire in the human species to get something for nothing, defying many natural laws. Whatever goes up comes down; action reaction; for a harvest you need a seed, just to name a few. But as we know, if you kept throwing stones long enough at a target blindfolded, you will one day hit it. It really takes numbers to take advantages of lapses in natural order. And if there is one thing that can deliver numbers in the business sense it is the internet.
A case is recounted, where an individual would blast 30 million emails to make 3,000 sales. This conversion ratio of one percent of one hundredth is a redefinition of dismal. And that such an individual would still refer to themselves as a business person without batting an eye-lid is a wonder. Today with CANSPAM regulation that makes sending unsolicited emails illegal, this game will land you in jail easy.
A happy customer is one that gladly parts with a form of value called money to get a perceived greater value of a good or service. That business is about creating value should never escape an internet entrepreneur; and this is why. To quote the late Gary Harlbert, one of the top copywriters of recent times, "Business is three things, a product (value), a pitch and a delivery system." The internet is simply a delivery system. But due to its agility, it does provide in more ways than one an unprecedented level of opportunity. An array of of business models can be developed and run online with very low cost. And these models vary from illegal ponzi and pyramids to astute businesses like ebay. But it is the grey models in between these two that tend to be hazy. This makes it easy to pick a model that does not add value to your customer. As we noticed with arbitraging Adsense, this will not be sustainable.
Both Kelly Robbins & Mark Kimathi are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kelly Robbins has sinced written about articles on various topics from Sales and Negotiation, Marketing Tool and Web Development. Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed, Kelly Robbins is an award winning copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. She also publishes