Marketing Strategies and Good Business for Physicians

Marketing Strategies & Good Business Practice for Physicians (Part 1 of 2)

By: Andrew Eriksen

Published in Medical Exchange

In the turbulent healthcare climate we currently live in, it is more important than ever that physicians focus on growing their business and building patient loyalty. This fact takes me to my first point in incorporating successful marketing strategies in your medical practice.

Cultivating Patient Loyalty

Loyalty among patients is one of the most important and often under-appreciated aspects of a successful medical practice. How do you define patient loyalty or know if you have it? There are a few metrics that can provide you a picture of your current patient loyalty index (PLI). There are two primary metrics to consider when evaluating your PLI:

1. Patient Referrals. Current patients should be referring friends, family, and colleagues on a consistent and measurable basis. This metric works for majority of medical practices.
2. No-Shows. If your no-show percentage is greater than 2-3%, then you may have a patient loyalty problem. Even if you are not reminding your patients of their appointments, loyal patients will still show up. An appointment with your office is as important as a birthday party or board meeting and a loyal patient never no-shows without a phone call and ample notice.

It is my opinion, without exception, that building loyalty among patients is the most profitable and cost effective marketing strategy available. It is thought that loyalty comes about by simply being a good provider and treating your patients the way you would want to be treated. While this is true, a foundational piece of building loyalty, it is by no means, the only thing you need to build loyalty.

Here are four ways to immediately improve patient loyalty:

1. Identify your weaknesses by utilizing a mystery patient
2. Focus on customer service and the overall patient experience
3. Leverage technology to improve efficiency and convenience
4. Institute patient satisfaction surveys on your website or at your office

Utilizing a mystery patient will give you unbiased feedback on you, your staff, and your office in general. They look at things from how clean the bathrooms are to how long they have to wait.

Customer service and leveraging technology really go together in this new era of tweeting and instant gratification. Whether you agree or disagree, the fact remains that today’s patients need more from their doctor than just quality medical care. While quality medical care is an important foundational element, it is not enough if you want to do more than just survive in the next ten years. Patients of today are focused on quality care and efficiency. Patients of today want more from a medical office than just quality patient care. They do not want to wait more than 20 minutes, they want the doctor to listen without rushing them out the door, they want to be able to email the staff to request or change an appointment, they want to complete their paperwork online and if that is not enough, they want the office to feel warm and inviting.

This is the first part of a two part article on incorporating successful marketing strategies in your medical practice. The second article will be on finding your niche and effectively utilizing the internet.

Andrew Eriksen

Founder/Executive Director

800.406.4796

[email protected]

Physician Practice Specialists

www.PhysicianPracticeSpecialists.com