Cut Costs, Not Services: Surviving Tough Economic Times

Unfortunately, during difficult economic times like those we’re now experiencing, hearing aid retailers have to find ways to stay afloat sailing on choppy revenue waters.

The first place most hearing business owners turn is staff. Layoffs. Fewer hearing specialists. And that translates into slower delivery of services to your customers. Appointments for hearing evaluations may be scheduled weeks in advance because you had to let two hearing aid dispensers go to keep expenses under control.

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  Another place retailers look for cost cutting is marketing. They cut back on their daily ads in the local paper and radio spots are just too pricey. These steps may offer what appear to be easy ways to lower operating costs but laying off staff and cutting back on advertising to save money is, plain and simple, shooting yourself in the foot.
  
  Yours is a service business in a competitive marketplace. Only 2% of Americans employ hearing aids so we’re all competing in a tight market in a tighter economy. Hey, that means you have a problem.
  
  Here’s how to fix it.
  
  Expand Service Offerings
  If you’re seeing fewer feet walking through your store front, the last thing you want to do is cut services. This has a direct impact on customers and, while it may save on overhead, long term your well-earned local reputation will begin to erode and word of mouth marketing – the best marketing tool in your kit bag – dries up with the delivery of fewer services of lower quality.
  
  Instead of cutting services, expand service offerings to maintain current levels of store revenues. Some suggestions?
  
  Extend your stores hours by opening earlier and staying open later to accommodate customer schedules.
  
  Offer in-home hearing evaluations. Go to the consumer and simplify the process.
  
  Engage in community outreach programs. Visit schools, nursing homes, and other community institutions to conduct free hearing evaluations. In other words, take your show on the road.
  
  Offer free aftercare services. Free battery replacement. Free cleaning and tune up. Free annual hearing evaluations. These free services more than pay for themselves with increased regular customers and community goodwill.
  
  Organize community health fairs. Contact other health service providers in the community and create a blood bank, a BP and hearing screen, free eye exams and so on. Not only are you performing a valuable service to the community, you’re also maintaining the number of customers you see each week.
  
  Build your store’s website to allow customers to schedule appointments on line.
  
  Add a toll-free help line.
  
  Expand your marketing.
  This is not the time or place to cut your promotion budget. Even if it hurts. Look, potential customers have to know your store is there so you have no choice. You have to advertise in the telephone books (very, very pricey), you have to advertise in local newspapers and run spots on local radio and cable TV channels – even if that outgo hurts.
  
  Cutting back on advertising during difficult economic times only hastens the demise of your client base.
  
  Solutions?
  
  Use your store’s website as the center of all your advertising. All adverts point prospects to your website where you can tell your story – the high standards of quality that you represent. While websites aren’t cheap, you can build one for a few thousand – a small price to pay for the centerpiece of all of your marketing.
  
  Make sure your URL appears on every piece of paper associated with your shop – ads, brochures and product literature, invoices, business cards – integrate all of your marketing around your website to create greater local impact.
  
  Newspapers are hurting. Call the advertising managers of the local town papers and negotiate a better rate for a longer term commitment for more ad space. Rates are very negotiable in tough times.
  
  Again, reach out. Create a name for your company as a good corporate citizen. Give it away to create word of mouth advertising – especially in smaller markets where good news spreads fast. Bad news spreads even faster.
  
  Highlight benefits of products, not tech specs. In your print and video advertising, talk about quality of life issues, NOT signal-to-noise ratios. Specs don’t sell. Benefits do.
  
  Maintain contact with your existing client base. These are the customers paying the rent so mail them or email them with special offers – “JUST FOR OUR VALUED FAMILY OF CUSTOMERS.”
  
  Of course, send out reminders that it’s time for the customer’s annual hearing evaluation. This may be top priority on your list but it’s the kind of thing most people forget unless you remind them.
  
  Don’t follow the conventional wisdom of cutting services and marketing. This is precisely the wrong thing to do in difficult economies. Be more visible, make it easier for customers to get screened and fitted, offer incentives and keep prices down by cutting margins whenever you can.
  
  Listen up, hearing aid retailers. It’s time to change tactics.