By Glenn Bryan, GrowthMatrix, Inc.| Branding and Marketing Consultants to Healthcare

 

 

In 2009, I shared five articles with ACOM Health clients and subscribers on the topic of “marketing your practice.”  These articles focused on a strategic overview of marketing and set the stage for my next five articles in 2010.  To gain perspective, let’s briefly review:

 

"Stop Doing What You’re Doing!"
Advertising does not work.  It is expensive, diminishing in effectiveness, and does not attract high-quality patients.  Stop advertising!  Focus your energy on building your clinic brand by using relationship management strategies to give your patients exceptional experiences that drive word-of-mouth.

 

"Growth 101"
Having a vague or general goal of growth can have a negative impact on your practice in many ways.  Rather, understand the specific areas you can focus on to create controlled and managed growth, and then lay an operational foundation of systematic activities that lead to quality growth.

 

"Image is Everything"
Because you’ve never thought about your clinic as having a brand, you may believe you don’t have one.  Not true.  Your clinic has a brand whether you purposely created it or it created itself.  Get control of your clinic brand by defining your brand promise and then using the five steps provided to ensure consistent delivery of your brand promise.

 

"Total Experience Drives WOM"
The ultimate in practice marketing is to have your patients bringing in new patients through word-of-mouth (WOM).  This is true, but do you know what drives WOM?  This article explores some common assumptions about WOM and explains that  WOM is driven by the total experience your patients receive when engaged with your clinic.  Because this total experience can be managed, then WOM can be managed.

 

"The Mind of the Patient Leads to YES!"
The more your patients say YES to your health treatment recommendations, the more successful your clinic.  But, to get to YES involves building a trusting relationship with your patients.  And this cannot be done by treating your patients as look-alike cogs in a production process.  Segmenting your patients into distinct groups and developing an approach that meets these groups needs physically, emotionally, and experientially will lead to a more trusting relationship and more “YESes” to your treatment recommendations.

 

If you read my 2009 articles, I trust my message was clearly delivered.  Building a successful practice that you can be excited about begins by defining your approach to health care and why you, your approach, and your clinic are unique.  This is your brand – your foundation to effective marketing.  Your clinic’s perspective of health care is the foundation upon which you build your entire practice marketing.  If you don’t have this foundation, then you are at risk to build an unsatisfying practice that does not inspire you or your patients.  Building this foundation may be a tough, time-consuming process for some chiropractors, but it is worth it.  My first article will provide a step-by-step approach to begin to improve your practice brand.  Follow these steps to navigate the task of making your practice brand what you want it to be.

 

Another area of great importance is to construct and manage the experiences your patients are having with your clinic.  Not just while they are in your office, but every time they interact with your clinic – whether in person, over the phone, via the internet, or in print.  There are countless areas related to patient experience that we could discuss, but this year we will focus on two areas that can result in increased revenues.  My second article will deal with increasing revenue by increasing “share-of-patient.”  If your current patients are your best way of increasing revenue, then let’s explore how to make that happen.  My third article will deal with enhancing the return from your facility.  This may be a neglected area of your practice, but your facility is either helping you or hurting you.  For some of you that are “design challenged,” this may be a painful article – but one that we need to explore.

 

And finally, we will explore new patient acquisition.  I purposefully never begin talking with chiropractors about new patient acquisition.  Why?  Because typically the clinic brand and experience is so poorly managed that you’re losing too many patients out the backdoor while you’re trying to bring new patients in the front door.  This causes frustration, fear, and desperate measures.  The most effective and satisfying way to grow a practice is to build on your existing patient base.  This year we will explore two approaches to new patient outreach that I believe build on your brand and experience.  My fourth article will deal with a systematic and interactive method of reaching out to potential new patients without damaging your image as a highly educated and respected physician.  And my fifth article will deal with networking in your community to build your referral base upon your practice brand and patient experience.

 

That’s our outline for the year.  In the meantime, let me encourage you to begin to think and believe differently about your practice.  Don’t allow your current situation to lead you to adopting advertising or promotional tactics that diminish your image and standing as a health care physician, attract deal-seeking clients that cannot be converted to long-term patients, and create a sense of chaotic excess work in your clinic with very little to show for your efforts at the end.

 

There is a better way to build a practice.  One that results in higher satisfaction, pride, and income.  Yes, it takes some hard work and time to build, but the long-term results are worth the effort.

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Next Steps

• Learn About Rapid Chiropractic Software