Drumming up Business
How can I increase my business? How can we get back to the level of business we had last year? In recent discussions we have had with labs, we have heard that increasing business has moved high on many priority lists.
Some have decided their approach should be to compete with faster turnaround and lower prices. Others have decided a better approach is offering more expertise and service to the doctors and letting them know through seminars, presentations, direct mail, email and phone calls.
And if you asked the doctors what they would like, what would they say? All of the above. One of the best ways to give more for less is to explore how technology can help.
One lab owner told us he plans to learn and keep in sync with the digital technology his doctors are using more and more. For this, the thing he wanted most in a new computer system was the ability to store digital images sent from the dental office and use these to produce excellent lab work. In addition, his own photos and scans of case documents could save time and provide reference for multi-stage cases or whenever a patient's history is needed.
Another excellent service to provide to the doctor is the ability to enter prescriptions and case notes via the internet, then have these records readily available when the case materials arrive for production. The dental office could use the same online system to check the progress and dates for their cases and to request pickups.
Another approach to better communication is to implement an email notification service to let doctors know which cases have been received and are in progress in the lab and which cases have been recently shipped. This results in time savings and convenience for both the lab and the dental office.
To help you get started, we are offering during the month of January 2009 these reduced license fees: Image Scanning Supplement $200, Email Notifications Supplement $200 and DentalRx Supplement $1200.
And for even more ideas on low-cost business buiilders, be sure to take a look at Options, a new publication dedicated to marketing to dentists and to other labs. If you do not already have a copy, visit www.katadamedia.com or telephone 860-485-0740.
What's New for QuickBooks 2009?
Two of the new features for QuickBooks 2009 instantly caught our attention. One was that the Enterprise version now is available for up to 30 concurrent stations using QuickBooks. Along the way, there was only one lab operation we had to turn away. This was because the lab along with their supply business required more than 20 persons working with QuickBooks at the same time. Intuit has been very cautious in each of its expansion to be sure that the increased volume of work could be handled with speed and reliability. The Enterprise versions have been very popular with mid-size businesses, resulting in increased requests to have more concurrent users. The number of application areas and activities that can be secured to limit access is now over 115. New inventory capabilities include multi-location, serial/lot tracking and barcoding.
The second item that may be of interest to international businesses is the new multi-currency feature. In addition to providing for multiple currencies for orders, invoices and payments, up-to-the-minute conversions for many countries are available. This is available in Pro, Premier and Enterprise versions.
For more details on what is new in QuickBooks 2009, visit www.quickbooks.com.
Once More...Our Holiday Schedules
These are the days our offices will be closed:
- Wednesday and Thursday, December 24-25, Christmas
- Wednesday, December 31 at noon, New Years Eve
- Thursday, January 1, New Years Day
Because not all the labs we service honor these holidays, we will check for email and voice mail messages on these days.
We wish you all good times now and in the year ahead!
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