Dental industry blogs and bulletin boards have made it possible for anyone to post comments, opinions, criticisms, and compliments about your company in a public forum for the world to see. In many cases, there is little or no fact-checking or editing of these remarks. What this means is that potential customers, investors, and business partners may see this information and take it as fact. What can you do?
Periodically check blogs and bulletin boards to monitor what is being said about your company and its products. Here are a couple to start with:
http://www.docere.com
http://dentalinsider.blogspot.com
Think carefully before responding (most blogs and bulletin boards allow you to post a comment), as you do not want to engage in a public mud-slinging contest. In some cases, it may be better not to respond. If you choose to respond, here are some points to consider:
1. Respond only to comments that contain clearly inaccurate or out-dated information.
2. Identify yourself as a representative of the company. This is key–if you try to be anonymous (or worse, pretend to be a dentist) and are later outed as a shill, you will cause more harm than good.
3. Comment in a calm, unemotional, and factual way, responding to the comment, not the commentator.
4. When possible, explain how the problem has been (or is being) corrected, provide evidence proving the information is false, or otherwise “solve” the issue raised.
5. If someone with a grudge is repeatedly using these sites to intentionally try to cause your company harm, consult an attorney to see whether there are legal remedies. Do not publicly respond to this type of individual.
6. Instruct sales representatives and others in your company not to represent your company on blogs or bulletin boards. One individual, preferably someone in corporate communications or marketing, should have this responsibility.
Whether or not you respond, it can be illuminating to see what people are saying about your company and your competitors. As they say, knowledge is power.
A recent article in Target Marketing Magazine discusses the value of “white mail”– mail received from customers not as the result of a solicitation or promotion. In other words, letters that typically arrive in white envelopes and contain a complaint, suggestion, request, inquiry, or other communication. The article calls such communications “solid gold” because customers have taken the time to voluntarily communicate with you.
Do you know how your company is handling these letters? Each one represents an opportunity to solidify, repair, or create a customer relationship. Responding poorly (or worse, not responding) can create the kind of antipathy that assured that not only did my father refuse to buy Fords but that I would think ill of them as well. Even a crank deserves a response (Benjamin Franklin?).
Make sure someone in your company (preferably someone in marketing or at least customer service) has the job of receiving and processing white mail. By processing, I mean a sort of triage process that assures that the response is in proper proportion to the content of the letter. It may well be that some letters are deserving of a response from the company president. Imagine a well-meaning customer sending a letter about a really ugly mistake (or a terrific product idea) and getting a perfunctory response from an overburdened staffer who saw it as “not his/her job.”
White mail should be answered personally and promptly, by the appropriate individual at your company. If the customer has written a two-page letter, don’t respond with a preprinted postcard. Most important, learn from your white mail–address complaints, consider suggestions, and use compliments to boost employee morale by passing them along.
With all of the talk about a housing bubble, have we ignored a dental equipment bubble? 2004 and 2005 were very strong years for dealers and manufactures with many companies enjoying record sales. That is definitely not the case in 2006. A slow first quarter and slow convention sales have left many companies scrambling to recoup the fourth quarter. Low interest rates and favorable tax laws led many dentists to upgrade or expand their practices over the past few years. Even though there are still favorable finacial conditions, the pipeline looks pretty full. And because of full waiting rooms, dentists are realizing that they do not have to become more productive to expand revenues. Any discretionary spending is getting eamarked for technology, which is why dealers are moving to fill their product portfolios with products such as cone beam CT scanners at $200,000 a pop.
2007 looks like a great year for technology and another soft year for equipment. We may begin to see some shake out in the industry. One more thing that will continue to keep things interesting is the growing number of products from China.