Last year I spent a lot of time at events talking about how many businesses forget to put their customer at the heart of their copywriting and content marketing.

I notice when the customer perspective is missing in copy, but I also have a keen eye for content that hits the mark with prospects.

Today’s example comes from my brand new dentist. My previous dentist (who I was happy with) moved away. I was on the lookout for something new. After a recommendation I looked up Centre For Dentistry (CFD) which, from what I can gather, is a national franchise with local practices. My local practice is a relatively new one.

I signed up, got booked in and went for my first appointment.

I was impressed with the practice – clean, friendly, and a couple of personality touches:

The appointment was great, but what I really liked was the follow-up service and a couple of things struck me:

• What they’re doing is simple
• What they’re doing take minutes to execute
• What they’re doing will be essential to survive as competition increases and consumers have more choice
• Most businesses don’t do this…

How many times do you ignore the follow-up message?

First things first, the follow-up email.

How many times do you get a text email or phone call after a service?

Take this quick survey and tell us how we did!

Click here to fill out a short questionnaire about your experience…

If you’re like me, you pretty much delete them as they came in. But there was something that caught my eye with the CFD email:

Perhaps it’s because I’m a copywriter, but what I loved is that they weren’t asking for a survey, they were asking for a specific review.

It was an explicit call-to-action that was easy to do, but more than that: I felt that as a customer I was being listened to.

• Surveys feel anonymous, I’ve never felt acknowledged of listened to through a customer satisfaction survey
• They were brave enough to ask me my to express my thoughts, in public, in my own words (not just tick a number on a scale that could get filed in ‘difficult customer’)

So I did…

And I felt listened to with their reply.

But then…

I’m feeling pretty positive about the whole experience. And then a few days later I receive this in the post:

A card. An actual handwritten thank-you note.

I’m impressed if I get that from getting someone a birthday present so this stood out to me.

My previous dentist did none of these things and I was pretty happy with their service.

But this dental practice went to extra lengths to delight, not just please me.

What’s the pay off?

The result of this simple action is that I’ve told people about it. I’ve recommended other people to the practice, I’ve written a review and this blog.

Obviously content marketing isn’t magic and can’t patch over a crappy product. I enjoyed the service, but their follow-up sequence prompted me to share it more than I normally would. 

Which is something to think about. Imagine if you had an automatic, simple on boarding sequence that encouraged say, every fourth or fifth person to review your business. How many would you accumulate over time? How many case studies would you be able to build?

And how many recommendations would be rippling out into your industry?

Till next time,