by Tom Boyer for the Lasting Impressions blog series
In this Lasting Impressions blog series I’ve covered the various ways you can make an impression on potential and current customers from their ease of getting to your store to the last interaction they had with you or your staff before walking out the door. Just as important as these experiences, is how they think of you once they have left. Even after your customers have departed the store, you need to reinforce the positive impression they had when they were there.
There are many ways to stay in touch with your shoppers outside of the store. One nice touch is to send cards. Hopefully you have a customer list that includes 
current mailing addresses. Sending a card is simple, doesn’t take much time, and it is a sure-fire way to make someone’s day. How often do any of us get personal mail anymore? When you do, it’s a treat! Take a few minutes to send first-time patients a thank you card, acknowledge a new mom and dad, or to appreciate long-time customers. You can also send birthday cards, or notes to commemorate other milestones.
If you don’t have customer contact information, try having a drawing where a form has to be filled out completely in order to enter. A nice benefit of this effort is rewarding one or a few patrons with a gift or dollars-off coupon for an upcoming transaction.
Another idea to keep your positive impression going among your patrons is by participating and supporting various community activities, or local groups. You may already sponsor local sports teams or volunteer for neighborhood improvement projects, or assist your hometown Women’s Club or American Legion. Find other ideas in this post.
Improve the perception of your store throughout your community by becoming familiar and friendly with other healthcare professionals. Make the effort to meet physicians, practitioners, nurses, caregivers, counselors, and more. You can mutually benefit from forming these types of relationships as well as improve the care for your patients.
Other ways to strengthen positive impressions – protect your brand online: establish a web presence, develop an online presence, and learn about social media. You can also hold your own events, such as an open house or a health fair, and check out this e-book for a step-by-step event planning checklist.
These options for continued outreach can distinguish you from your competition. Extra efforts to make customers feel special don’t have to cost a lot, it’s the time and thought you put into it that makes it stand out.