Listening to your patients and learning to meet their needs are keys to growing your practice and creating an effective marketing plan. In fact, not doing so handicaps the overall reach and effectiveness of your marketing, communications, and service strategies.
Luckily, there are a variety of interactive media tools that provide platforms for listening to an ever growing sample of patients. These monitoring tools offer doctors opportunities to identify critical conversations and for strategic engagement.
Here are some of my favorite and FREE social media "listening"tools:
Google Alerts - Email updates of relevant search results
Monitter - Search for keywords in real time on Twitter
Social Mention - Real time keyword search across the web
Twitrratr - Sentiment ratings for Twitter
Backtype - Monitor blogs, blog comments, and conversations
Blogsearch - Find key words in the blogosphere
Evri - Aggregates user generated content
CoTweet - Conversation threading and trend monitoring for Twitter
Collecta - Monitor update streams of news sites, blogs, and social media sites
Klout - Find influencers based on topic
TweetDeck - Organize Twitter seaches by hashtag, brand, etc.
Since these tools are free, I advise searching for your practice or specialty on multiple sites so you don't miss potentially valuable information or feeds. Your practice's needs will be unique so select the tools and services that best fit your processes.
Do you have favorite tools for monitoring your practice or brand? Share them here in the comments :)
Showing posts with label patients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patients. Show all posts
How 4 Quick Fixes Can Make Your Event a Success
Hosting an informational seminar or event is a great way to introduce your community to your practice.Here are our four of our favorite suggestions to help "punch up" your event and make the most of your effort:
1) Choose an event theme that corresponds to an upcoming holiday For example, if you want to offer an oral cancer screening, choose cancer awareness month.
2) Host giveaways. Give away free screenings or elective services – it’s a low risk way for people to experience your care and a great way to generate lots of interest.
3) List your event on as many online event calendars as you can find. Not only are you likely to create more buzz, but local publications will often republish your events.
4) Invite relevant bloggers or media contacts to attend an event for free. Check out your local news sources to find influential writers or those that cover health care topics. Make sure you have future events already scheduled so they can promote them or provide links in their write-ups.
If you’ve got any killer tips to add, we’d love to hear from you!
Email Marketing - try it today!
No matter what type of practice you have, you should be collecting your patient's email addresses. Simply add the prompt to your new patient information form, medical history sheet, or ask them directly during your initial phone call. If you start doing this, you'll open the doors to inexpensive ways to stay connected with your patients and educate them about your products and services.
Once you've collected a few emails, you can use a service like T-Link or Mail Chimp to send special announcements and promotional emails. These services will protect patient confidentiality by keeping the lists private.
Before you get started with email marketing, here are a few things you should know:
* Not all of your patients will want to hear from you. If they receive an unwanted email from you, make it easy for them to get off your mailing list. Most email services will have an unsubscribe feature that allows them to select out automatically. If yours does not, and the patient calls your office to be removed from the list, do it right away. Unwanted email can be really irritating to those patients with busy jobs and schedules.
* Have a reason to send an email. There's a saying that if you have nothing to say, you shouldn't be advertising. Make sure when you do email your patients you are saying something new, engaging, or interesting. If you send emails everyday, you'll notice that people will tend to ignore them. Try to send them only when you have something cool and exciting going on or something to offer.
* DON'T SHOUT! Using all caps in email headlines is the equivalent to yelling your message in your patients face.
There are tons of ways to use email to market to your patients without spending a ton of money. If you have some success stories or ideas, please share them here!
- Sarah Nelson
Sarah is the President and founder of Npress. She works with health care providers who struggle with marketing and attracting new patients. Npress makes patient newsletters that are customized to look like they are straight from the doctor's desk! Check them out at: http://www.npressnewsletter.com
Once you've collected a few emails, you can use a service like T-Link or Mail Chimp to send special announcements and promotional emails. These services will protect patient confidentiality by keeping the lists private.
Before you get started with email marketing, here are a few things you should know:
* Not all of your patients will want to hear from you. If they receive an unwanted email from you, make it easy for them to get off your mailing list. Most email services will have an unsubscribe feature that allows them to select out automatically. If yours does not, and the patient calls your office to be removed from the list, do it right away. Unwanted email can be really irritating to those patients with busy jobs and schedules.
* Have a reason to send an email. There's a saying that if you have nothing to say, you shouldn't be advertising. Make sure when you do email your patients you are saying something new, engaging, or interesting. If you send emails everyday, you'll notice that people will tend to ignore them. Try to send them only when you have something cool and exciting going on or something to offer.
* DON'T SHOUT! Using all caps in email headlines is the equivalent to yelling your message in your patients face.
There are tons of ways to use email to market to your patients without spending a ton of money. If you have some success stories or ideas, please share them here!
- Sarah Nelson
Sarah is the President and founder of Npress. She works with health care providers who struggle with marketing and attracting new patients. Npress makes patient newsletters that are customized to look like they are straight from the doctor's desk! Check them out at: http://www.npressnewsletter.com
They're not just going to know: Educating your patients about your services
Often times when my clients think about marketing, they focus most on attracting new patients. Obviously, this is an important goal but there is another, often overlooked, marketing opportunity within your practice: Telling your patients everthing that you do and increasing your patients' utilization of your care.
Many doctors I've worked with believe that their patients already know everything there is to know about their practice. Let me tell you, in reality, your service offerings may be something that your patients know least about.
How do you tell your patients about additional services?
Take one minute at each visit to relay a short story message about something you offer. Make it easy to relate to, like a dentist might say, "I had the wife of a patient come in yesterday and she said "please do something with my husband's teeth. They are so brown, I'm sick of looking at him." This opens an opportunity for you to talk with your patient about an offering that they may not have tried in your practice.
My favorite tool for educating patients and igniting treatment requests is a practice newsletter. You can create one as an e-zine or a mailing - both are great. The added benefit of a mailing is that the newsletter can be a referral tool. It can be left on a coffee table (where it can be seen), or given away and shared. If you need help getting started with a newsletter, email me: sarah@focus-evolve-succeed.com or visit www.npressnewsletter.com. I've spent a lot of time researching and testing the best way to use this tool and I am happy to send you a sample.
Many doctors I've worked with believe that their patients already know everything there is to know about their practice. Let me tell you, in reality, your service offerings may be something that your patients know least about.
How do you tell your patients about additional services?
Take one minute at each visit to relay a short story message about something you offer. Make it easy to relate to, like a dentist might say, "I had the wife of a patient come in yesterday and she said "please do something with my husband's teeth. They are so brown, I'm sick of looking at him." This opens an opportunity for you to talk with your patient about an offering that they may not have tried in your practice.
My favorite tool for educating patients and igniting treatment requests is a practice newsletter. You can create one as an e-zine or a mailing - both are great. The added benefit of a mailing is that the newsletter can be a referral tool. It can be left on a coffee table (where it can be seen), or given away and shared. If you need help getting started with a newsletter, email me: sarah@focus-evolve-succeed.com or visit www.npressnewsletter.com. I've spent a lot of time researching and testing the best way to use this tool and I am happy to send you a sample.
Take time to connect with your patient
There are many times in patient care when it is important to connect emotionally with your patients. Typically, these times are at the start, the middle, and the end of the appointment. Yes, it seems so obvious but many times practioners are so busy that the emotional connection is ignored in part in all appointments. Talk about missed opportunity! It's one of those things like, "I know I need to do this, I just forgot..." The cool thing is, if you remember to do it, and take your time, it costs you nothing and often leads to a very profitable result!
Just yesterday, I was observing a cosmetic derm practice and the doctor was seeing a new patient. In the initial interview, the new patient stated what she wanted, (brown spots removed from her cheeks and less tired looking eyes), and said, "I would have gone to my dermatologist for this, but he's always so busy." (Alarm bells sounding off in head because patient has told us exactly how to make her happy) The doctor then spent an extra 25 minutes discussing the patients goals and treatment options. The patient described the way her skin made her feel and why she was uncomfortable. She told the doctor about her daughter's upcoming wedding and he wish to look younger in the wedding pictures. When the consultation was done, the patient ended up scheduling for $5500 more treatment that what the initial treatment plan outlined.
Do you think that would have happened if the doctor rushed the consult and didn't connect with patient?
If you want to increase your case size, the likelihood or a referral, and your satisfaction, do the following:
Spend time creating a relationship with the patient. Ask her about her family, her work, or her life in general. If appropriate, disclose a bit about yourself. This establishes trust and trust leads to case acceptance.
Make eye contact and practice active listening. Tell her what you will be doing and answer any questions and ask permission to start treatment.
Speak to the benefits of treatment and the advantages of how you provide the care. Don't be too technical or serious. Just connect emotionally with your patient.
If you start taking more time, your patient satisfaction will go up. Happy patients = referring patients. Get started today!
Just yesterday, I was observing a cosmetic derm practice and the doctor was seeing a new patient. In the initial interview, the new patient stated what she wanted, (brown spots removed from her cheeks and less tired looking eyes), and said, "I would have gone to my dermatologist for this, but he's always so busy." (Alarm bells sounding off in head because patient has told us exactly how to make her happy) The doctor then spent an extra 25 minutes discussing the patients goals and treatment options. The patient described the way her skin made her feel and why she was uncomfortable. She told the doctor about her daughter's upcoming wedding and he wish to look younger in the wedding pictures. When the consultation was done, the patient ended up scheduling for $5500 more treatment that what the initial treatment plan outlined.
Do you think that would have happened if the doctor rushed the consult and didn't connect with patient?
If you want to increase your case size, the likelihood or a referral, and your satisfaction, do the following:
Spend time creating a relationship with the patient. Ask her about her family, her work, or her life in general. If appropriate, disclose a bit about yourself. This establishes trust and trust leads to case acceptance.
Make eye contact and practice active listening. Tell her what you will be doing and answer any questions and ask permission to start treatment.
Speak to the benefits of treatment and the advantages of how you provide the care. Don't be too technical or serious. Just connect emotionally with your patient.
If you start taking more time, your patient satisfaction will go up. Happy patients = referring patients. Get started today!
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