Current customers are the lifeblood of your business. Unfortunately in the pursuit of growth, companies can lose focus of how valuable current customers are to business operations. While it is always important to grow new business, this new business comes at a higher retention cost than does maintaining your current clientele.

Sending the wrong message

It isn’t what you say it’s how you say it! Here is an example of a real letter received due to a canceled appointment:

“Dear

This letter is to remind you of our existing office policy.

There will be a $50 minimum charge for all appointments missed or rescheduled without 24-hour notice. We will not reschedule any patient after two missed or rescheduled appointments. Our time is valuable and must be used efficiently to keep our expenses at a minimum and our fees within reasonable limits.

This is just a reminder. You will not be charged for your appointment that was missed / rescheduled on May 10.

However, any future appointments missed or rescheduled without 24 hours notice there will be a charge.

Thank you for helping in our continued commitment to provide the highest quality of dental care available to all of our patients and to have those services comfortably affordable.

Sincerely,

Michelle”

The writer of this letter either needs to take a class on how to write or think from the customer’s perspective. The customer doesn’t care about how valuable the company’s time is or a policy. The most important part of this letter is that they are not going to be charged, period!

Maybe the writer doesn’t see anything wrong with the way this letter is written but they need to know, how it’s perceived from their loyal customer. Rather than this letter being a reprimand, it could easily become a great tool to show appreciation while addressing a business issue.

Sending the right message

The person who received the previous letter has been a loyal customer of this establishment for 10 years and this was his first missed appointment. Needless to say this customer was completely shocked when they received this letter. An example of how this letter can be more effective would be:

Dear: ____________

We appreciate your business and understand that things beyond your control will arise at a moments notice. To offer you and all of our valued clients the highest quality dental care, we appreciate your commitment for being on time to appointments

If attending your schedule appointment is going to be a challenge, please let us know at least 48 hours in advance so we can offer your appoint to another patient; otherwise we will need to charge you for the appointment as we’re not able to offer service to another patient due to a short notice cancellation.

This missed appointment will not affect your current status as a valued customer. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to your next visit. Please call to reschedule (enter phone number here).

Thank You,

Not only is this newer version non-threatening, it is compassionate, understanding, forgiving and above all it offers a call to action that lets your customer know that you want them back.

Current customers hold more value

Your current customers are your most valuable customers. Each communication written to them should be written as such. It is standard to try and evaluate the ROI of communications to gain new clients through advertising. What about the ROI of letting a writer make your customers feel valued? Is that retention rate worth the investment? I think so.