Lowering Prices to Boost Volume

By Ray Alde, CEO, Arklign, San Jose, CA

In 2013, we decided to get aggressive to increase our revenue. We thought the best path toward growth was the simplest option: lower prices to increase volume. We lowered our fees across the board by about 20%, anticipating that our loyal customers would be grateful and new customers would be excited to take advantage of our pricing.

It didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped. We didn’t see a noticeable difference in volume from existing customers and many new customers, only interested in price, left quickly for yet another less expensive lab. By 2014, we knew it was a lost cause, so we raised prices up even higher than previous levels. This backfired even worse and we lost more customers than we had gained.

 We realized that doctors are looking for more than just good quality and cheap prices; they’re looking for relationships....